Why are yawns "catchy"??

Answer 1

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn.[2] The reasons for this are unclear; however, recent research suggests that yawning might be a herd instinct.[3] 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".

Adelie Penguins employ yawning as part of their courtship ritual. Penguin couples face off and the males engage in what is described as an "ecstatic display," their beaks open wide and their faces pointed skyward. This trait has also been seen among Emperor Penguins. Researchers have been attempting to discover why these two different species share this trait, despite not sharing a habitat.

Answer 2

Dear Cecil:

Why is it that when I yawn, everyone around me yawns too? Am I so boring that I put even myself to sleep? Or is yawning just the latest STD (socially transmitted disease)? --Daniel C., Washington, DC

Cecil replies:

Not being personally acquainted with you, Dan, I'm not in a position to say just how tedious the experience of your company really is. But I should note that yawning isn't always a sign of boredom.

Adelie penguins, for instance, employ yawning as part of their courtship ritual. The happy couples face off amid the ice floes and the males engage in what is described as an "ecstatic display," their beaks open wide and their faces pointed skyward.

It may be, therefore, that when your entry upon the scene inspires a round of uncontrollable yawning, you have merely stumbled onto a gaggle of Adelie penguins in disguise, who are signaling their powerful erotic longing for you. A slim hope, admittedly, but any port in a storm.

As for the larger question of why yawns are catching, nobody really knows. Fact is, we don't know why people yawn, period.

It was long believed you yawned when there was too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen in your blood. A part of your brain called the brain stem detected this and triggered the yawn reflex. Your mouth stretched wide and you inhaled deeply, shooting a jolt of oxygen into the lungs and thence to the bloodstream.

Subsequently, you exhaled a lot of CO2. Often you'd stretch while yawning, which seemed to temporarily improve circulation. You yawned and stretched a lot more when you got tired because your breathing slowed down.

Or so people thought. In recent years, though, a few radicals have said the preceding is all malarkey. Who knows, they say, maybe we yawn because it's too warm in the room.

Cecil isn't about to settle the issue here, and he doesn't need to. We merely observe that whatever yawn-inducing conditions prevail for you also apply to your friends.

If you're out late in some crowded dive, you're probably all tired, all warm under the collar, and all breathing the same stale air. You're probably all on the verge of a yawn, too, and the power of suggestion from seeing one person do it is enough to push everybody else over the edge.

Adults rarely catch a case of the yawns from a child or animal, which tends to corroborate this idea.

Children usually have different sleep schedules and respiration rates from adults, so you would expect them to yawn at different times. Animals, on the other hand, often yawn not for physiological reasons but as a display of hostility, to which humans are evidently unresponsive.

Answer 3

You yawn when your system slows down and your breathing rate slows and becomes more shallow. A yawn compensates for the lower amount of oxygen your body is taking in. Yawns are "catchy" I would guess because seeing another person relaxed causes an involuntary relaxation of the people around them.

Answer 4

Just like stretching, yawning is a reflex. It even occurs in animals that have been born without a correctly formed brain. But normally it’s triggered by stimuli like tiredness, the sight of others yawning or social stress. Yawning increases blood pressure and heart rate and also flexes muscles and joints. If you try to stifle or prevent it by clenching your jaws shut, a yawn is somehow less ‘satisfying’. For some reason, the stretching of jaw and face muscles is necessary. Yawning seems to keep the brain aroused in situations where sleep is unwanted, like in the early morning and when struggling to stay awake at night. It’s associated with high states of alertness – and stress or fear. At athletics events, you sometimes find participants in the race of their lives standing in the starting block and yawning. Or musicians as they psych themselves up before a concert.

All yawns seem to last about six seconds and are very difficult to stop once they get going. They really are infectious – it’s not just a coincidence. Studies have shown that forty to sixty percent of people who see a yawn end up by joining in. Yawning can be extraordinarily catching. Hearing one can trigger a yawn. Even sitting alone in a room thinking or reading about one can cause a yawn.

We have a brain mechanism that detects a yawning face – even in our imagination – and which then triggers the same behaviour. Once the neurological machinery in our head gets underway it’s hard to stop. But why? It seems that contagious yawning is caused by something very important to humans: empathy, the ability to identify with other people’s feelings.

People who are particularly prone to contagious yawning also tend to score highly on tests that measure levels of empathy. They are people who are in-tune with what others may be feeling and contagious yawning suggests that they’re inclined, in certain situations, to unconsciously mimic their behaviour. They tend to be the same people who say ‘ouch’ when someone else stubs a toe or steps on a sharp object.

This ability to feel empathy for others is an important part of being human. It only develops when we are a year or so old – just like contagious yawning – and no animals show any signs of empathy whatsoever, except chimpanzees and orang-utans. It is a definite advantage to us as a species: binding social groups together through their feelings for one another and bringing individuals closer together.

Answer 5

You just made me yawn.

Answer 6

People are sheep, monkey see monkey do? Honestly, I have no idea. Great question.

Answer 7

last I hear the government research was still trying to figure it out ... and honest they are doing research.

Answer 8

Because, we're all...connected!