What makes yawning contagious?

Answer 1

the psyche - so i believe.
but that doesn't explain why my DOG yawns whenever I do

Answer 2

Air pressure changes around us all the time. one of the ways of changing the air pressure in the ear is by yawning. Just like the hint to force a yawn while taking off when flying and when landing. it is seems contagious only because the pressure effects every one. There is no way of telling if it is a yawn for oxygen or a yawn for relesing pressure in the ears.

Answer 3

What makes yawning contagious is>>> the power of suggestion. It's also what makes me want to run to the kitchen & get a cookie even if I'm not hungry.

Answer 4

Yawning is contagious simply because of the yearning to do as others for that specific action. Some scientists call it the “mirror-neuron system,”

Answer 5

The more empathetic you are, the more likely it is that you'll identify with a yawner and experience a yawn yourself. In a recent study a contagious yawning in people with "high empathy," "low empathy" and everything in between. He found that higher empathy meant more yawn-susceptible and lower empathy meant more yawn-immune.

Answer 6

Oxygen isn't the only reason for yawning. Sometimes you yawn to equalize the air pressure in your middle ear. Since your yawn causes subtle air disturbances in the room, it sometimes unequalizes the air pressure in someone else's ears, and then they have to yawn to restabilize it.

Answer 7

None. It is a case of monkey see, monkey do - when an action occurs among people or animals, it triggers thinking about the activity and triggers like behavior - a person yawning or stretching makes others think of the condition and notice they need to do the same thing, perhaps a bit earlier than they would have on their own.

Answer 8

I read about that once but I can't really remember. I think it was something about the calmness of the person that yawns that makes others think about sleep.

Answer 9

It is not really contagious in all cases, but the power of suggestion can have an influence, so it would just seem contagious.

Answer 10

a yawn is a reaction to changing air pressure in an environment.

you see or hear someone yawn and it tells your sub-conscience that the pressure has changed and triggers the reaction in your inner-ear.

Answer 11

I think it's something to do with the air. I've seen others yawn after me, and they didn't even know that I did.That tells me that it has to do with the air/environment.