Do you think yawns are contagious?

Question

I think they are Oo

Oh yeah dont compare me to rico please -_-'

Answer 1

yawns are contagious for me but for some people they can keep themselves from yawning.

Answer 2

Cover your mouth if you want to, but it won't keep the next guy from "catching" your yawn.
Contagious yawning is real, scientists say, and it's "probably programmed into us," according to Dr. William Broughton, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of South Alabama Knollwood Hospital.

The action of a mouth opening is not what compels others to yawn, Broughton said. Studies have demonstrated that showing someone a photo of a wide-open mouth does not induce a yawn.

Conversely, holding a hand over the mouth while yawning doesn't prevent it from being contagious, Broughton said.

Contagious yawns appear "basically to be a visual response," Broughton said.

Between 40 and 60 percent of people who watch videos or hear talk about yawning also end up doing the deed, according to Nature News Service.

Researchers from the State University of New York in Albany tested people to find out why some are susceptible to contagious yawning and deduced that self-aware or empathetic people are more likely to catch yawns, according to the news service.

"Identifying with another's state of mind while they yawn may trigger an unconscious impersonation....The findings also explain why schizophrenics, who have particular difficulty in doing this, rarely catch yawns," Nature News Service reported.

Broughton said contagious yawning may be a social phenomenon, allowing groups of humans to coordinate their times of sleep.

Ronald Baenninger, a professor in the psychology department at Temple University in Pennsylvania, has studied yawning and said that the contagiousness is the part we know the least about.

One hypothesis is that the phenomenon came about when ancestral humans lived in troops, and it was important for them to wake up at the same time. Yawning may have been a way for them to communicate the level of alertness among different group members, Baenninger said.

Today, contagious yawning is just the result of evolution, an instinctive action, Baenninger said.

Answer 3

They are. And there is now explanation.

Mirror neurons typically become active when a person consciously imitates an action of someone else, a process associated with learning. But they seem to play no role in yawn contagiousness, the researchers in the new study found. The cells are have no extra activity during contagious yawning compared with during other non-contagious facial movements, they observed

Answer 4

Yes. I do lectures and talk about yawning as a stress reliever. Just saying the word usually causes one-fourth of the people to yawn. If I yawn, more people follow suit.

Answer 5

no u cant say they;re contagious...for ex: if u're sitting close to somebody or with someone in the same room u might yawn and then the other person will most likely do it too right after u do because there isnt enough oxygen in that particular room

Answer 6

They are. I heard that it had something to do with when we were primates (if you believe in evolution). We all have a thing that we want to be like everyone one else. So if someone yawns, you usually can't help but yawning. I think that's true but I'm not sure.

Answer 7

yes i agree with you totally awwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrr
Scientists speculate that the onset of a yawn is triggered either by fatigue, or by sheer boredom as, at those times, breathing is shallow, and little oxygen is carried to the lungs by the oxygen-toting cardiovascular system.

but thats boring
dont mind a good yawn........but av you noticed when you do it alot it hurts your shoulder lol

Answer 8

They are for me. I'm very sensitive to yawning, like reading tis makes me yawn. Not because it's boring but because like I said I'm sensitive to yawning.

Answer 9

oo yeah, wow no kidding..i just yawned while i was thinking about yawning!

weird eh?

Answer 10

I think so and I just started to yawn reading this.