• Question: why do people yawn and then another person will yawn. why is this ?

    Asked by booo to Louise, Michaela, Sian, Steve, Yvette on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Yvette Wilson

      Yvette Wilson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      so according to this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6270036.stm yawning is contagious so that a group communicates their alertness. Not entirely convinced that there is proof that it has evolved for this purpose though and don’t really know how to test such a theory!

    • Photo: Louise Johnson

      Louise Johnson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Nobody really knows why we yawn or why it is contagious! Chimps will yawn if they see other chimps yawn, so it’s not just a human thing. Dogs may even be able to “catch” yawns from humans.

      Some explanations have been suggested – it might be a kind of social bonding behaviour to keep groups of humans working to the same clock. One theory is that yawning is actually a way to cool the brain, or bring in extra oxygen, to try to stay alert despite being sleepy and that would keep a group of tired humans awake long enough to look out for predators. Not sure if I buy that one though!

    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      There’s quite a few different theories – The one I like most says that it’s been evolved as a way of the leader of a group to signify when it’s time to go to sleep, apparently people yawned more after someone considered to be more ‘superior’ yawned.

    • Photo: Sian Harding

      Sian Harding answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Possibly empathy – mirroring someones actions brings you closer. We have “mirror” neurons in our brain which play a role in this as we are a very social species

    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Wikipedia has a great article on this. Basically, we aren’t sure yet! But it may be contagious as either a way to keep a social group alert or to imitate others, which is known to enhance social groups.

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