• Question: Why is yawning contagious and why is it more contagious if you know the person whose yawning?

    Asked by Zealousy to Rebecca, Susan, Chris, Josh, Rob on 16 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by haleema <3, Ben.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      When yawning is contagious is is demonstrating a herd-like copying behaviour, where all animals will copy the actions of their friends and relations to help the pack stay close together. The closer the relationship is to the person that yawned, the stronger the urge to copy them. Despite the fact that we don’t need to do that anymore, we have not “un-learned” the behaviour. A co-worker of mine recently spent a couple of years teaching tortoises to copy yawning from pictures of other tortoises yawning, so everyone does it, not just us!

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      It seems to be related to empathy – you are signalling your awareness of your fellow yawner’s mental state. This is why it’s more contagious between people who are emotionally closer: relatives and friends. Conversely, autistic people, who have trouble interpreting other people’s states of mind, don’t find yawning contagious.

Comments