Why You’re More Likely to Yawn When Your Friend Yawns

If you yawn and the person next to you follows suit, don’t worry – you are not boring them. Rather, it is a good sign, for it means they really like you.

A scientific study suggests ‘contagious’ yawns are a sign of deep empathy. They are caused by an irrepressible need to share and understand the emotions and feelings of others.

The ‘emotional bridge’ created by the shared experience enhances social bonding, the Italian scientists say.

Researchers who monitored 33 adults over 380 hours, recording 1,375 yawns, found that a yawn was far more likely to spread – and did so more quickly – among friends and relatives.

The scientists also tracked the way yawns spread among bonobos, the species of chimpanzee most closely related to humans.

They monitored the apes for 800 hours, and found that a yawn ‘wave’ was just as likely to be triggered among bonobos as it is in humans.

The impact of friendship, however, was not evident among the chimpanzees.

A yawn was just as likely to spread between unrelated primates as it was between family members.

The researchers concluded that human ability to feel empathy is far stronger between friends and relatives.

They wrote in the journal PeerJ: ‘Humans’ responses were more frequent and faster when the trigger and responder shared a strong emotional bond.

‘Humans show a different degree of sensitivity… but only when they are strongly emotionally involved.’

Biologists believe contagious yawns are caused by an involuntary copying of the facial expression seen in others.

They think mirror neurons in the pre-frontal cortex – the part of the brain involved in social behaviour – are triggered when certain expressions are seen in others, prompting us to copy them instinctively.

The new research suggests that this ‘mirror system’ is strongest between people who are emotionally attached, probably by shared memories.

EMOTIONAL BRIDGE? HOW CONTAGIOUS YAWNING SUGGESTS FRIENDSHIP

The study suggests that contagious yawns are a sign of deep empathy. The ‘catching yawn’ is caused by an irrepressible need to share and understand the emotions and feelings of others. The ‘emotional bridge’ created by the shared experience enhances social bonding, according to Italian scientists.

In an experiment, they found that a yawn was far more likely to spread among groups of friends. The researchers concluded that human ability to feel empathy is far stronger between friends and relatives.

 Biologists believe contagious yawns are caused by an involuntary re-enactment of the facial expression seen in others. They think ‘mirror neurons’ in the pre-frontal cortex – the brain region involved in social behaviour – fire when certain expressions are seen in other people, prompting us to instinctively copy them.

The new research suggests that this ‘mirror system’ is strongest between people who are emotionally attached, probably by shared memories.

Reference: dailymail.co.uk

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