For years people have been under the impression that yawning is contagious. How could this possibly be true? Yawning is not caused by a virus or bacteria so how could it possibly be contagious? There are many theories whether it is empathy, age, or energy levels one thing is for sure, and thats that people tend to yawn when other people do too.

Researched from the University of Duke wanted to take a look into this. In their study, the researches examined 328 healthy volunteers. They did a number of tests that measured levels of empathy and energy levels. To test whether yawning is contagious or not the researches made the participants watch a three minute video of people yawning. They then recorded the number of times each participant yawned. After the tests, the researches found that 222 of the 328 participants yawned at least once and even yawned a consistent number of times each time they were tested. However, the researchers were not able to find a link between yawning and empathy, intelligence, or energy levels. 

There have been many different studies trying to link contagious yawning to many different things, but researches just haven’t been able to find any correlations. Many people suggest empathy of being a possibility, but no one is positive. However, different studies have shown other things may have an effect on yawning. For example studies have shown that psychopaths don’t yawn contagiously. Also, studies have shown that kids under the age of four and people with autism also do not yawn contagiously.

So, it is a fact that people do yawn contagiously, however why we do is still a mystery.

Sources

https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news-listing/contagious-yawning-may-not-be-linked-empathy-still-largely-unexplained

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3199335/You-psychopath-don-t-yawn-study-found.html