Have you ever wondered if there is something contagious about yawning? Suppose you were attending a physics lecture and you saw one of your friends yawn. After a while, without even realizing it, you yawned as well. What could be the reason? Was it because the lecture was boring? Or does it have something to do with your friend’s yawn?
If you have had your fair share of yawning in public, you know that yawning can be contagious a lot of times. This is termed as echo phenomenon. Just because we gave it a name, doesn’t mean know much about the phenomenon. Actually, why yawning is contagious is kind of a controversial topic among neuroscientists. And for every study that comes up with a solid reason, there is another research contradicting it. So, rather than a single solution to the question, we have a range of possible reasons.
One of the first conclusions that psychologists reached as far as the question is concerned is that yawning is contagious as a result of our empathetic behaviour. There are studies that support this idea. There are other animals for whom yawning is contagious too like chimps, dogs, etc. And almost all of them are socially active. And it is also evident that we more readily yawn if we see someone close to us yawn rather than a stranger. Also, people with a lack of social skills like those with autism, tend to be immune to this echo phenomenon. However, as mentioned before, there are studies that prove otherwise as well. A correlational study between empathy and susceptibility to yawning concluded that there is no relationship between the two.
Another possible explanation is the involvement of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are nerve clusters that are activated either when we carry out a task by ourselves or when we see someone else doing the task. So, in some way, it is a kind of mimicry at the biological level. There are both studies (fMRI) that support this hypothesis and reject it. But to be fair, scientists are still debating as to what and where are mirror neurons. So… you know…
Another approach to find an answer was using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). It found that people with more natural activity in motor neurons related to facial muscles are more susceptible to contagious yawning. It is also true that in general motor areas that control facial movements are easily excitable.
And there are numerous other studies, mostly unreplicated, that came up with other reasons for this phenomenon. Like for example, a study suggested that teenagers and young adults yawn more as compared to aged people and that people in a particular culture are more into yawning than others.
It actually is amazing how difficult it is to find a definite answer to such a simple question in psychology and it is funny to think that there are research facilities around the globe that spend millions of dollars to find these answers.
