Why You Yawn When You See Someone Else Yawn

A man yawns in a lecture hall in Maryland. Three seconds later, three strangers behind him are yawning too — and nobody told them to. Psychologist Robert Provine noticed this and ran an experiment that had nothing to do with tiredness. What he found: yawning spreads faster between close friends than strangers, barely spreads to toddlers, and sometimes doesn't spread at all in autistic people. It's not sleepiness. It's your brain quietly measuring how close you are to the person next to you — the same wiring that fires when you watch someone cry. From chimps grooming each other to wolf packs synchronizing sleep, this strange reflex has been tracking social bonds for a very long time. 0:00 The behaviour 0:59 Provine's two groups 1:48 The closer the bond, the faster 2:36 When it switches on 3:26 The more social the species 4:16 One row at a time 5:13 Same yawn, two readings SOURCES Provine, R. (1986) — Yawning as a stereotyped action pattern and releasing stimulus Provine, R. (2005) — Yawning: The Yawn Is Primal, Unstoppable and Contagious Norscia, I. & Palagi, E. (2011) — Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens Romero, T. et al. (2014) — Wolves display yawn contagion linked to social bond strength Campbell, M.W. & de Waal, F.B.M. (2011) — Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees WATCH NEXT Why a Stranger's Cringe Moment Makes Your Body React Like It's Yours    • Why a Stranger's Cringe Moment Makes Your ...   #psychology #humanbehavior #yawning