why is yawning so contagious yawning maybe you yawn because you're tired
maybe you yawn because you're bored or maybe the reason you're yawning is
because you just saw someone else yawn maybe just hearing the word yawn over
and over again is making you yawn right now no matter the cause one thing is for
sure yawning is contagious but what is the cause behind this contagious yawning
does it have something to do with our biology or the way our brain works today
bestie is gonna take a look at the reasons why yawning is so contagious
before we start subscribe to besties and click on the notification bell while
this video might make you yawn we promise our videos are never boring
so let's talk yawning and more specifically why we on people yawn for
all kinds of reasons ranging from tiredness to boredom but one universal
phenomenon that about half of all adults experience is yawning immediately after
seeing another person yawn this is known as contagious yawning just checking in
have you yawned yet while watching this video how about now
what causes contagious yawning to occur is up for debate although there have
been several theories made as to why yawning can be so contagious some
studies conducted initially appeared to suggest that contagious yawning had
something to do with human empathy however more recent research and
experiments have led researchers to believe that this may not be the case
after all one of the most comprehensive studies into learning the factors of
contagious yawning is titled individual variation in contagious yawning
susceptibility is highly stable and largely unexplained by empathy or other
known factors and was published in March of 2014 in the journal PLoS ONE as that
mouthful of a title implies the study was unable to find a concrete connection
between contagious yawning and empathy and even appeared to suggest that the
tendency for contagious yawning might actually decrease as we get older
according to dr. Elizabeth surelly an assistant professor at Duke University
and the author of the study the lack of Association in our study between
contagious yawning and empathy suggests that contagious yawning is not simply a
product of one's capacity for empathy
the way in which researchers at Duke conducted their experiment was this 328
participants were invited to watch a three-minute video that showed people
yawning while watching this video 222 of those 328 participants yond at least
once with some of them yawning up to 15 times from the video however based on
the data they acquired from the study dr. Sara Lee and the other researchers
involved were unable to find any kind of connection between contagious yawning
and human empathy
so if empathy isn't the reason for spontaneous yawning what is well to be
honest we're still not entirely sure however there appears to be some
potential correlation between contagious yawning and brain development
spontaneous yawning or yawning of the non contagious variety can be observed
while still in the womb while contagious yawning does not seem
to take effect until well into early childhood a study conducted by the
University of Connecticut in 2010 revealed that children are typically not
susceptible to contagious yawning until they're about five years old
additionally children with conditions such as autism don't appear to be
susceptible to contagious yawning at all regardless of age also while we're at it
here's a bit of fun biology trivia apart from humans the only other animals that
show signs of being susceptible to contagious yawning are chimpanzees have
you yawned yet while watching this video just checking
so did we figure out why yawning is so contagious well unfortunately the short
answer is no at the end of the day the reasons for contagious yawning are still
a mystery to scientists and biology enthusiasts everywhere in the study
conducted at Duke the only major connection that researchers were able to
find was age on average the oldest participants in the study experienced
less contagious yawning than the younger ones but even then this isn't really a
major discovery or breakthrough when all is said and done age was only able to
explain about eight percent of the variation in the contagious yawning
response of the participants according to doctor surelly age was the most
important predictor of contagious yawning but even age was not that
important the vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was
just not explained
while the reasons and causes behind contagious yawning remain a mystery
scientists and researchers are not giving up the search just yet
by studying who is and isn't susceptible to contagious yawning researchers and
scientists hope to gain a better understanding of conditions which affect
the mind and mental health such as autism and schizophrenia
according to surelly if a genetic variant is found that makes people less
likely to experience contagious yawning that same variant may also be related to
these conditions the biology of these conditions and contagious yawning could
lead to a better understanding of pathways in the human brain so what did
you think of our video how sensitive are you to contagious yawning how many times
did you yawn during this video be sure to share your answers experiences and
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like this thanks for watching