Why are yawns contagious?

Answer 1

Virtually any stimulus associated with yawns -- including viewing, reading about, and even thinking about, yawning -- evokes yawns. (Are you yawning yet?) Yawning spreads in a chain reaction through a group, a compelling example of human herd behavior and a reminder that we are not always in conscious control of our actions. The urge to replicate an observed yawn is clearly an automatic response triggered by our brains.

Studies partially explain the reason for yawning. Although we yawn more when sleepy or bored, it is unclear whether yawning increases alertness. And scientific evidence refutes one of the most popular myths of yawning? that it happens in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels in the blood or brain. Test subjects do not yawn more when breathing air with enhanced levels of carbon dioxide nor do they yawn less when breathing pure oxygen. One fact explains a lot of apparently inconsistent data. People yawn most during behavioral transitions, such as just after waking and shortly before bedtime. Yawning may help facilitate those changes. Contagious yawning may synchronize a group's behavior so that, for instance, a whole family goes to sleep together.

Answer 2

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn. The reasons for this are unclear; however, recent research suggests that yawning might be a herd instinct. Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack during a full moon. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods of activity. It can serve as a warning in displaying large, canine teeth. This phenomenon has been observed among various primates. The threat gesture is a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. The contagion of yawning is interspecific (i.e., try yawning in front of your dog). Yawning in public is generally regarded as impolite in the West, but came into fashion in polite French society for a brief period in the late 18th century. Oddly, sometimes sympathetic yawning may be caused by simply looking at a picture of a person or animal yawning, or even seeing the word "yawn".

Answer 3

mirror neurons. Discovered recently these neurons actually alows us to feel what another person is doing or feeling. It is why we smile at those who smile at us, how we get so involved in watching sports and is one of the reasons why we yawn why others yawn.

this is not the only answer and the herd answer someone gave sounds plausible, as does the idea that of theories that say it is even more base and that all baring of teeth provokes a similar reaction buried deep in our reptilian brain.

Developmentalists though will show that babies don't yawn when we do so it may be a higher emotional function or learned behaviour

for a lovely video that explains
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/video/3204/q01.html

Answer 4

When you see someone else yawn your brain automaticly notices how that person is getting a large amount of oxygen and as a reflex you do it too because your body wants that oxygen as well.

Answer 5

Because it's in our nature to mimic what we see - smiling is the same way, blinking is even worse. This is how fashion and music trends take off, there are tons of things people enjoy but you bring something into the limelight and it becomes popular for the time being.

Answer 6

This question is getting just plain exhausting. How can something that isn't a disease be contagious?

Answer 7

I'm not sure, but as soon as I read that I had a big yawn... Wow, just reading the word makes you do it...

Answer 8

It's the power of suggestion. Doesn't everyone enjoy the thought of a nice nap?

Answer 9

Been asked here more times than I can count. I recommend watching "Mythbusters" on Discovery. They proved this myth is just that -- a myth.

Answer 10

YES THERE ARE, CONTAGIOUS WHY I DON'T UNDERSTAND EITHER