(Bawn)
Seeing someone yawn is all it takes
to get me yawning.
In fact seeing someone yawn or hearing the word
or reading the word
is enough to get half of healthy adults yawning
Are you yawning now?
Yawning is an example of emotional contagion,
a phenomenon in which we tend to share
the feelings of the people around us
Of course yawning isn't the only behavior
that's contagious.
Sitcoms use laugh tracks because hearing
other people laugh can be hard to resist
(Laughter)
Even if the show isn't funny.
And when a baby in a hospital starts crying
look out,
because others within earshot
will also start crying.
We also copy less obvious signals from other people
such as posture,
speech patterns and facial expressions.
Emotional contagion and mimicry
may form the basis of empathy.
They help us to intuit the thoughts
and feelings of the people in our social circle.
And children under four
are actually less prone to contagious yawning,
as are children and adolescents on the autism spectrum.
Faces tell us a lot about what others are thinking and feeling
and people with autism tend to focus less on faces
and miss a lot of important social cues.
But even youngsters with autism
start to yawn when they're coaxed
into looking at the eyes
and sometimes the mouth of a yawner.
Evidence from chimpanzees suggests that yawning
spreads when empathy exists between two chimps.
Scientists showed chimps videos of either familiar animals
or strangers yawning.
The observers were much more likely to yawn
when they saw a familiar chimp.
We feel more empathy for people in our social groups
than for strangers.
And the brain mechanisms that support
contagious yawning may help maintain relationships too.
Even though it can be annoying,
contagious yawning is probably a sign of good social skills.
So don't hold back on the yawns.
Your friends might thank you for it.
For Scientific American's Instant Egghead
(Yawn)
I'm Sandra Upson.