Carine, Bi Han, Jun Wen and I were discussing why yawning is contagious while queuing up for food.
And the answer is that the researchers still dunno why!
Thought there is some biological reason underlying the contagious yawn. However, the answers were by just suggestions. Shocked right! By nature, we think people are smart. So smart that whenever we google something, we know we will get the answer.
Most recent answer:
Recent studies show that the phenomenon is also related to our predisposition toward empathy -- the ability to understand and connect with others' emotional states. It sounds strange, but whether or not you're susceptible to contagious yawning may actually be related to how much empathy you feel for others.
Empathy is an important part of cognitive development. We learn from an early age to value ourselves based on the amount and type of empathy our parents display, and developmental psychologists have found that people who weren't shown empathy by their parents struggle later on in life.
So empathy is important, sure, but how could it possibly be related to contagious yawning? Leave it up to psychologists at Leeds University in England to answer that. In their study, researchers selected 40 psychology students and 40 engineering students. Each student was made to wait individually in a waiting room, along with an undercover assistant who yawned 10 times in as many minutes. The students were then administered an emotional quotient test: Students were shown 40 images of eyes and asked what emotion each one displayed.
The results of the test support the idea that contagious yawning is linked to empathy. The psychology students -- whose future profession requires them to focus on others -- yawned contagiously an average of 5.5 times in the waiting room and scored 28 out of 40 on the emotional test. The engineering students -- who tend to focus on things like numbers and systems -- yawned an average of 1.5 times and scored 25.5 out of 40 on the following test. The difference doesn't sound like much, but researchers consider it significant. Strangely, women, who are generally considered more emotionally attuned, didn't score any higher than men
Contagious yawning is associated with the same parts of the brain that deal with empathy. These regions, the precuneus and posterior temporal gyrus, are located in the back of the brain. And although the link between contagious yawning and empathy has been established, explanations for the link are still being investigated.
One suggested answer:
Like contagious laughter and contagious crying, scientists have theorized that contagious yawning is a shared experience that promotes social bonding. It could diffuse stress after a period of being on high alert and spread a feeling of calm through a group.
Another one:
Although this “contagious” yawning behavior is not understood, it has been suggested that this could be the result of an unconscious herding behavior — a subtle way to communicate group behavior, such as when a birds follow the behavior of one bird, and all rise together as a whole flock.
Hope u didnt yawn reading this post. I thought it was interesting!
