Is yawning really infectious?

Answer 1

yes yes yes!

just reading your question has given me one! so they are obviously managing to get through my computer

Answer 2

although yawning is not actually infectious, it is catching.
i has everything to do with the fact that the people around you are all basically on the same time schedule. if you feel tired at 'say' 4pm your time, and you yawn, anyone seeing you yawn is reminded that they too have been up all day and automatically start to yawn. if you goto the other side of the world , say me in fort lauderdale and i goto japan, i yawn, and everyone see it, they won't yawn, because they aren't n the same time line

am i making any sinse?
-lucky

Answer 3

The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn. The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain. Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse. At a distal level (in terms of evolutionary advantage), 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, for example a human yawning in front of a pet dog can incite the dog to yawn as well. 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 4

I believe so, because I tend to yawn inadvertantly when someone else yawns (even over the phone).

The reason you yawn is your brain is trying to keep you awake by taking in large amounts of oxygen. When you see someone yawn, and you yourself may be tired or in a sluggish state, your brain may make see this and make the subconcious decision that you need to yawn, too.

Answer 5

It isn't infectious. It is a little contagious though and sometimes makes other people yawn too.

Answer 6

Yes, I yawn after I see someone do it. Even the word yawn makes me want to yawn.

Or I could just be permanently sleepy.

Answer 7

Monkey see Monkey do, simple as that. Yawning has great suggestive power. Even as you read the text here , you would feel like yawning.... O O h Y-A-W-N-N-N ......

Answer 8

Infectious? No. Yawning isn't an infection.

I think you meant Contageous, in which case it has been proven to be quite contageous.

Answer 9

Yes I am yawning now!

Answer 10

It has to be. I just yawned reading your question!