Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Science
  4. / Biology
  5. / Human Biology
  6. / Yawning

by Astaroth on April 11th, 2004

Astaroth

Question

Help answer this question below.

Is yawning actually "contagious"?

Share:
Other

Answers. 11 helpful answers below.

  • by pjchik on April 13th, 2004

    pjchik

    Wow. Great answers. In addition to yawning after another person, animal, whatever...research has discovered that a significant percent of people will yawn from simply reading the word yawn. Most of the test subjects also yawned after watching someone/thing yawn on tv or in movies. They also yawned from hearing someone doing it. Speaking of which, this question is making me yawn. ;) Hope this helps :D

    • Like
    • Report

    3 comments | Post one | Permalink

  • by QueenBea on April 12th, 2004

    QueenBea

    Yawning has been researched by scientists for years, and is still a mystery to this day as to why exactly humans and animals alike do it.

    There have been myths over the years that it is a trigger responce from the brain due to lack of oxegyn, but it was later announced that people given direct oxegyn, were just as likely to yawn.

    It is normally something that is done early am, or pm, due to fatigue, but can also come at times of boredom.

    Yawning is psychological because you can tell yourself not to do it and you won't. This is the reason why it is not contagious The normal feeling human, who can sympathize with anothers feelings, will yawn after another person, out of a person's natural reaction to atmosphere.

    This has also proven that schitzophrenics (sp) and people that suffer from severe cases of mania, are less likely to yawn after another person, due to their lack of sympathizing for another person in feelings, and lack of aknowledgement to reality.

    This by no means is implying that someone who doesen't yawn after another is a manic...just that it is a psychological act, when in reaction to another's yawn.

    • Like
    • Report

    2 comments | Post one | Permalink

  • by Seanette on April 25th, 2004

    Seanette

    Apparently, to an extent. See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_309.html for a moderately amusing take on this.

    • Like
    • Report

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Krys on August 15th, 2007

    Krys

    According to a new study, it is actually the result of empathic response to another individual.

    (Per MSN new today...) *smile*

    • Like
    • Report

    3 comments | Post one | Permalink

  • by Anonymous on January 13th, 2007

    Anonymous

    One yawn from my wife and i'm a goner.

    Probably is the power of suggestion.

    • Like
    • Report

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Connie Woodman on April 13th, 2004

    Connie Woodman

    Not only can you "catch" a yawn from other people, but you can spread yawns between species. My dog yawned, so my dad yawned, then my pet parrot yawned, and then so did I.

    • Like
    • Report

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by pinkpiggies on September 14th, 2006

    pinkpiggies

    After doing a little resreach on this question I found out that no one person really knows why we yawn, but humans are the only ones that do this when some one else does it, as I was reading all the articles every one seemed to think it was caused by a differetn reason. I did however find one artcle which i have listed below, that seemed to list all of the reasons we yawn,

    Happy reading (O:


    More From The Press-Register | Subscribe To The Press-Register
    Health Question
    Why are yawns contagious?
    Sunday, March 7, 2004
    By MONIQUE CURET
    Staff Reporter
    Cover your mouth if you want to, but it won't keep the next guy from "catching" your yawn.
    Contagious yawning is real, scientists say, and it's "probably programmed into us," according to Dr. William Broughton, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of South Alabama Knollwood Hospital.

    The action of a mouth opening is not what compels others to yawn, Broughton said. Studies have demonstrated that showing someone a photo of a wide-open mouth does not induce a yawn.

    Conversely, holding a hand over the mouth while yawning doesn't prevent it from being contagious, Broughton said.

    Contagious yawns appear "basically to be a visual response," Broughton said.

    Between 40 and 60 percent of people who watch videos or hear talk about yawning also end up doing the deed, according to Nature News Service.

    Researchers from the State University of New York in Albany tested people to find out why some are susceptible to contagious yawning and deduced that self-aware or empathetic people are more likely to catch yawns, according to the news service.

    "Identifying with another's state of mind while they yawn may trigger an unconscious impersonation....The findings also explain why schizophrenics, who have particular difficulty in doing this, rarely catch yawns," Nature News Service reported.

    Broughton said contagious yawning may be a social phenomenon, allowing groups of humans to coordinate their times of sleep.

    Ronald Baenninger, a professor in the psychology department at Temple University in Pennsylvania, has studied yawning and said that the contagiousness is the part we know the least about.

    One hypothesis is that the phenomenon came about when ancestral humans lived in troops, and it was important for them to wake up at the same time. Yawning may have been a way for them to communicate the level of alertness among different group members, Baenninger said.

    Today, contagious yawning is just the result of evolution, an instinctive action, Baenninger said.

    Though other creatures yawn - including dogs, cats and even snakes - contagious yawning is a "purely human occurrence," Broughton said. It begins around age 2.

    Baenninger and his students conducted a study to see if the contagion works between species. The students went to the zoo to observe whether humans would yawn when the animals did. A few people yawned in response to a lion's yawn, but the lion never replicated the humans' behavior, Baenninger said.

    There is some evidence that when one ape yawns, others will too, the professor said.

    Broughton said it's not clear what causes yawns. He defined yawning as "slow, involuntary gaping movements of the mouth," and said the word is derived from the Old English word ganien, which means "to gape."

    Spontaneous yawning begins in the embryonic stage, so it is not learned behavior, Broughton said.

    The idea of a fetus yawning while in the womb goes along with the notion of the action being a way to prepare for something, Baenninger said.

    Yawning appears to be associated with sleepiness, though the idea that it has to do with boredom is not necessarily true, Broughton said. It's an unconscious effort to keep your alertness level elevated, Baenninger said.

    "I'm a professor. All professors are used to having students yawn at them," Baenninger said. But the yawns are an attempt to stay awake, rather than an affront, he said.

    A few notions about why we yawn have been debunked: "Because breathing takes in oxygen and removes carbon dioxide, theories in the past about why we yawn centered on the assumption that it was a reflex in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels," writes Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, an associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

    "This theory lost favor after a study in 1987, in which volunteers subjected to high oxygen levels did not yawn less, and after high carbon dioxide exposure did not yawn more," Shmerling said.

    In an article, he outlines several theories - none of which have been proven - about why we yawn:

    *To prevent airways in the lungs from collapsing by stretching the lungs and nearby tissues. "This could explain why yawning seems to occur around the time of shallow breathing (when tired, bored or just arising from bed)," Shmerling writes.

    *To distribute a chemical that coats the air pockets in the lungs and keeps them open.

    *To prepare for an increased level of alertness, especially just after a period of relaxation ("because yawning is associated with stretching of the muscles and joints and an increased heart rate").

    *To signal nonverbally that it is time to relax. "Extensive yawning among members of a baboon group signals the time to sleep, typically with the leader ('alpha male') ending the ritual with a giant yawn. For humans, yawning could be a remnant of evolution that communicates the desire to be left alone (or) the need for rest."

    *To serve as a warning system that sleep may soon take over.

    Most people seem to enjoy yawning: They usually rate it highly on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of the pleasure it brings.

    But those who try to suppress a yawn - the effect of which is called a nasal yawn - rate it as less satisfying, Broughton said.

    Excessive yawning can be a sign of disease, such as multiple sclerosis; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease; and Parkinson's disease.


    http://www.al.com/.../index.ssf

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Gonzo on January 13th, 2007

    Gonzo

    well, yes. In a way.
    You yawn when you are short of oxygen. When you see someone else yawning, you're brain automatically thinks "Oooh, there must be an oxygen shortage I better yawn too". So you do.
    And, aw, with all this talk about yawning, is there an 02 shortage? I *yawn*.. think there must be...

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by ChaiCustard on August 15th, 2007

    ChaiCustard

    Tricky. I think its both. Our mind sees someone else yawn, then it makes us yawn. Does this count as 'trick'?

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Anonymous on January 6th, 2009

    Anonymous

    YAAAAAAA IT IS CONTAGEOUS IT SUCKS IT IS FUNNY THOUGH ME AND MY FRIEND WERE SITTING HERE STUDYING IT AND WE WERE CRACKING UP BECAUSE WE KEEP YAWNING!!!!!!!!!!!:)

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

  • by Thommy on April 28th, 2004

    Thommy

    Yawning sometimes can be a manifestation resulting from different things going on with an individual. It is not always the case, but here are a few things that could prompt a yawn (one would want to be sure to differentiate/identify them).

    Sometimes a yawn can be prompted because a person has a confusion or misunderstanding from an area. An example could be: A person is reading a book and goes by a word or term that is not comprehended relative to the text. Often the person does not recognize that something wasn't understood correctly or that there is this little confusion hanging around following the word or phrase or context. The person goes into manifestations like feeling a little dull or bored and probably "blanks out" on some of the proceeding text --you ever get to the bottom of the page and realize you don't know what you had just read? Well, a yawn can appear as a result of this sort of confusion. You can actually conduct this experiment for yourself by trying to study some technical manual of which you are very unfamiliar and is full of terms which you don't know. After awhile of really trying to grasp the concepts you will notice the boredom and eventually yawns and tiredness. Another example: You ever find yourself talking to someone about a subject of which they really have no interest? Often it could be a technical or business jargon subject of which the person is not fully familiar nor has much interest. The person is polite and pretends to be listening while you bore the heck out of them and they are not really grasping what you say... ...and then you see the listener start to yawn as a result of not fully getting the concepts being talked about.

    Sometimes a yawn can be prompted because something wasn't communicated, or one did not fully tell everything and isn't really certain whether or not the other person knows what is being withheld. Basically it has to do with something withheld that the yawner isn't sure whether or not another person knows about. An example would be asking your teenage son "Where did you go? Who were you with?

    What did you do exactly?" If he isn't clean on the episode, you could see some yawning result... ...and maybe later a lot of criticalness or "over-the-top" behavior. An example also could be the person who is pretending to listen and is withholding the fact that they really have no interest.

    Also yawning can be a result of looking at or facing-up to some moment in a person's life. Much like a person may shed some tears, yawning could result as one starts to release areas where his awareness and alertness weren't up to par. There is a correlation as to one's alertness/awareness being low and yawning. It is often observed on the path towards more awareness, or also on the path towards less awareness.

    These are not necessarily all the things that can cause a yawn, but rather just some of the "prompts". If one is yawning and there is also an area of some sort of confusion, an area one is not fully in-touch with, then you have a clue.

    No comments. Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading Is yawning actually "contagious"? - which can also be phrased in the following ways:

  • Why is a yawn contagious?
  • Is yawning actually contagious or is it just a mind trick?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

ANSWERBAG BUZZ

Is yawning really contagious
How come yawns are contagious
Are yawns really contagious
Is yawning really contagious
Is yawning actually contagious

Answerbag

a Demand Media company