We’ve all been there. Wide awake, ready to go– and then you see someone yawn. The espresso in your hands and 10 hours of sleep in your system is irrelevant: you yawn back. While you may not be tired, yawning seems to be contagious. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this phenomenon occurs, but there are quite a few theories out there, ranging from psychological to physiological. But the argument that seems most prevalent is that yawning in response to seeing another yawn is actually a form of empathy.
To explain why yawning is contagious, it is crucial to understand certain physiological entities called mirror neurons. These mirror neurons are neurons which send a signal both when an animal performs a specific action and when the animal observes the same action being performed by another animal. A 2012 study measured brain activity (using MRI) as the subject was shown videos of people yawning, and they found that as the subject viewed the tapes, certain regions of their mirror neuron systems (MNS) showed increased activity (and in turn, resulted in yawns by the subjects). These mirror neurons are thought be responsible for allowing us to empathize with others, and thus making us reciprocate certain actions of others. Another study was conducted in which dogs were shown videos of humans yawning or making indistinct mouth movements. They found that the dogs would return with a yawn after seeing humans yawn, but not when they viewed the random mouth movements. This may explain the relationship between dogs and humans–if dogs can indeed empathize with humans, it explains why they are considered to be “man’s best friend”. So do all humans yawn contagiously? No–interestingly, studies have concluded that children who fall on the autism spectrum do not exhibit contagious yawning. Children with autism, who often have difficulty expressing empathy, so the recognition that they do not experience contagious yawning is further evidence to support that yawning is linked to our ability to empathize.
As many other people said, while reading your post I also found myself yawning. I also did a blog post on this but I found yours to be interesting on how you talked about the experiment with the MRIs. I also like how you included information on how dogs are also susceptible to the contagious yawns. I did not realize that most all animals are affected by the yawns of other people. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201403/why-is-yawning-so-contagious Check out this site for more information! They also introduced a new piece of information such as yawns being less contagious as a person ages.
I found this post super interesting! I would have never ever thought that our yawns could be related to animals as well! Your blog inspired me to do some of my own research and I found this article that is similar to what you said here!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2465817/Yawning-IS-contagious-Remarkable-video-shows-chimps-catch-yawns-humans.html
This was a great article that caught my eye immediately because I yawn constantly. Even if I get ten hours of sleep the night before I am always exhausted. I think you are 100% correct about the human-dog relationship because when I am upset or had a bad day, it almost feels like my dog knows it. In that study it explains that animals are sympathizing with you, like yawning, we are “sympathizing” by yawning with somebody else. It makes perfect sense if you think about yawning being “contagious” in that sense.
While I was reading your post, I found myself yawning the entire time. Because of this, I think that yawning is not only contagious when you see someone yawn, but also when you hear or think about it. This goes along perfectly with what you were saying about the neurons in the brain. I have noticed that my dog yawns when I do and I never really thought anything of it, but now that you showed the scientific facts behind it, it makes a lot more sense. Humans and apes have a yawn contagion that echoes an emotional contagion, which is the basal layer of empathy. In science, the yawn contagion is used to compare empathy among humans and different species of animals. Therefore, yawning is in fact “contagious”.
https://peerj.com/articles/519/
That’s an interesting idea that kids with autism don’t yawn because they miss facial cues. The study I cited made sure that they saw the people (“All the participants viewed the movies in a soundproofed room and were asked to count the number of female faces that appeared during the movie. All the children correctly counted the faces, which ensured that they attended to the display.”), but didn’t focus in on where exactly they were looking–I’m glad a more specific study has been done looking at this issue closer.
There is an acceptation to what you discussed up top. Many people think that children with autism apparently don’t respond to social yawning because of their struggle with empathy, but this is also incorrect. In a new study, it was shown that children with autism don’t yawn because they don’t look at peoples’ faces, therefor they don’t pick up on social cues. But then the children were coaxed into looking at someone yawn, they would yawn as well, so they are clearly capable of reacting to social cues when they see them , they just don’t see them as often.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yawning-not-contagious-for-children-with-autism/
I actually did address this: “So do all humans yawn contagiously? No–interestingly, studies have concluded that children who fall on the autism spectrum do not exhibit contagious yawning. Children with autism, who often have difficulty expressing empathy, so the recognition that they do not experience contagious yawning is further evidence to support that yawning is linked to our ability to empathize.”
After reading your post I myself yawned numerous times. Then I after research on more information about it I found myself yawning even more. From my research I found out that is an exception to this theory. Which is people with autism. The studies behind this shows that contagious yawning is caused by people being sympathy. This sympathy can also be found in animals such as dogs and apes. This is why they yawn in correlation as we do. However, those with autism lack this sympathy feeling and as a result is able to resist the urge to yawn. Therefore, everyone does not yawn when they hear, see, or think about yawning.
Geggel, Laura. “Yawning Not Contagious for Children with Autism.” Scientific American, October 1, 2014. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yawning-not-contagious-for-children-with-autism/.