Study finds that straight men have no problem kissing their guy friends

A study conducted in two UK universities and one sixth form college (which means guys aged sixteen to nineteen) has found that the overwhelming majority of heterosexual guys — 89%! — have no problem kissing their straight friends on the lips. 36% engaged in "sustained kissing." From the Daily Mail:

Dr Eric Anderson, from the university's department of education, said: 'Heterosexual men kissing each other in friendship is an offshoot of what happens when homophobia is reduced.

At these universities, overt homophobia has reduced to near extinction, permitting those men to engage in behaviour that was once taboo...

It seems generally younger people are becoming more and more open minded with each generation.'

Of course, there are certainly caveats to this. For one thing, this is a very specific and homogeneous group, which Dr. Anderson admits. (He'd like to continue to study these attitudes across race and class.) And while it seems illogical, I'm sure there are straight men out there who consider kissing their guy friends on the lips okay (because they're totally straight, bro!) but would be more weirded out by actual gay guys kissing.

That being said, this does seem like forward movement, whether it's on the eliminating homophobia front or the expanding the definition of masculinity front. Which can't be bad news. Plus, you know... it's totally hot.