How Contagious Yawning Works

Yawning is contagious, but why? Check out the leading theories on contagious yawning and empathy in this HowStuffWorks podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from how stuff Works dot Com? Hi, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at
how stuff works dot Com with me or two of
my favorite editors, Chris Palette and Candice Gibson. Are you

(00:21):
guys today doing all right? Candice? What about you? That was?
That was a yawn from Candice? And actually I strangely
feel like yawning right now, which reminds me of an
article I wrote once. It's called does contagious yawning Mean
You're nice? Are you guys familiar with this? Yeah, it's
pretty amazing to think that something we don't know much about,

(00:43):
like yawning, could actually be passed on because you see
somebody on and you have an empathetic feeling toward that person. Yeah,
and it's kind of amazing, Candice. Yeah. And not only
is yawning a strange phenomenon, Empsy is pretty strange too,
depending on how it's expressed. And empathy, just to bring
you up to speed is just essentially the way that
you're relating to another person that shows that you're trying

(01:05):
to experience the feelings that they're experiencing, be them, you know,
positive or negative. UM. Empathy just shows that you're in
tune of what the other person is doing. You can
identify with them, you can put yourself in their shoes,
and a nutshell, perfect nutshell. That's pretty much the link
that people. Well, researchers have concluded that that we yawn
contagiously or were susceptible the contagious yawning because we feel empathy.

(01:29):
But that's pretty much where the solid explanations go. And
Candice is actually yawning. I can't get over it. I'm
just that nice. But you know, I did want to
tell you guys a little bit about yawning and some
of the theories that are floating around out there about it.
You know, it doesn't just mean you're what sleepy board
all the above, that's true. It could it could be

(01:50):
a number of things. Um. Some researchers have even gone
so far as to suggest that it could be a
little bit like your teeth or you're not your teeth,
your dog's tea when they he or she is baring
their teeth, the show anger or you know, they're being defensive.
They're saying, you know, maybe you are doing this you know,
subliminal response that you are going, you know, don't mess

(02:11):
with me. Yeah, don't mess with me exactly. And uh,
you know, people have even said that they can yawn
at their dog and their dog will yawn back. So
maybe the maybe it's something there to that theory. So
have they found in studies that people yawn when their
dogs bear their teeth at them? Um, you know, I
didn't see anything suggesting that, to be honest with you,
but uh, but it is interesting to know what I mean. Um,

(02:34):
I think you were saying earlier that uh, it may
actually be linked to a fight or flight response. Um,
and that you know when you put it that way,
that it's not so uh not so strange. Sure, we
were talking about the African savannah, the fight, the fight
or flight response you mean, right, well, yeah, there's a
theory that um, contagious yawning. Well, since you yawn maybe

(02:57):
to make yourself more alert, which would be ful when
you feel fear. Yeah, it's because it carries blood to
your brain right now, alert exactly. And if you feel
fierce safe because the lions approaching and you yawned a response. Uh,
through empathy, a fellow member of your species could pick
up that yawn and pass it along, and before you know,

(03:18):
if there's no one there for the lion to eat,
because they've all got adult, they got out of there.
Another theory has to do with the eyes as cues.
Have you guys heard about this the eyes? Have it? Actually?
A researcher that I read about did a study to
try and since the yawning his contagious, he wanted to

(03:38):
try and find a yawn that would would get everybody,
and the best he could do was about people who
when he'd cover up the mouth, um the eyes still
made people yawned, because he assumed that it was the big,
wide open mouth and the stretch that made people want
to yawn. But when he covered up the eyes and
just showed the mouth by itself, he got a slightly
less response. And he never could find a yawn that

(03:58):
was the perfect storm, one that would have always make
people yawned. So it seems like it's the eyes right
buy into that, because it's not like the parts of
your face don't work in conjunction with each other. When
I smile, my eyes crinkle or you know when I sneeze,
sign my news scrunches up. Everything sort of works in
conjunction with each other. So I totally buy that. And
another theory I buy is that people yawned because their

(04:20):
bodies aren't getting enough oxygen. And that's a quick way
to gulp a whole lot of air right in. It's
just open your mouth as well as it can go
and get it inside. And if others see you daring this,
they might take a cue that their environment isn't supplying
them with enough oxygen either, so they yawn just when
you do. Apparently, the fact that the eyes are served

(04:41):
as a cue for contagious yawning, it's supported by a
study of autistics or people with autism. Um that they
showed slides of people yawning, but they were shown just
the just the mouths. And apparently people with autism get
their cues from people's eyes. Uh, and they had no
action to it whatsoever. Um. Well, yeah, which is interesting,

(05:05):
and we know just sort of general science that people
with autism have um a little bit less of an
understanding of people's verbal or non verbal cues and said,
it's interesting that they didn't get both parts work in
conjunction to have an empathetic response, but that they just
responded to the eyes. Well, it's it's going to require
more study. And if you're interested in studying this for yourself,

(05:27):
you know what we suggestion as you start with does
contagious yawning mean you're nice? That's available on how stuff
works dot com. We're all gonna go take maps. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

(05:49):
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