Why the heck is yawning contagious? I would expect such a feature to evolve if it served a purpose like, say, warning of something coming. See someone give a warning call, pass it on to the rest of the tribe. But why should a sleepy signal do that? Was there a sleep illness people had to worry about catching? Maybe it evolved to signal to everyone that it’s nighttime. How many species is yawning contagious for? I’m picturing lions for some reason. I have a feeling the behaviour is common among mammals
When a baby is crying on an airplane during takeoff or landing, I visibly and audibly yawn in front of them on purpose, so they catch the yawn and pop their ears.
You’re supposed to stay in your seat during take off and landing. Please, remain in your seat. Why do you keep getting out of your seat and silently scream at the babies?!
Who says you have to get out of your seat?
that is genius
How to tell if your baby is a sociopath with this one simple trick. For this trick you’ll need: a baby, a stranger, an airplane, and the power to suspend all critical thinking.
You’re not tired, but you saw a post about yawning? Well, guess what.
You are now yawning manually.
You read the word Yawn several times in a meme, guess what
Literally just yawned reading this meme, lol.
Yeah I had to yawn when I opened the comments. Yawning is really weird
Wtf
Just reading this made me yawn.
same! what is this WITCHERY!?1
oh gods dammit fuck aaaaall y’aaaaaall.
Yawn
What’s that? You’re not tired and you haven’t seen anyone open their mouth big, but you read about a hypothetical person opening their mouth big? Bad news…
Luckily I managed to cover my yawn but keeping my lips/teeth together but opened up the inside of my mouth. Think I got away with it.
Careful, I literally pulled my neck last week doing that
Apparently there isn’t much consensus on what the actual reason(s) are for yawning. Apparently fish yawn though, so that’s cool.
Isn’t it a social signal, apebrain talking?
Solitary animals yawn too. Don’t if they can catch yawns, or how to test it.
Supplying oxygen to brain before task, reused in ape for social?
My entirely uneducated guess would be that its some, very basal, ancient, basically gasping compulsion, that… just never quite fully got patched out by the subsequent tens of millions of years of evolution.
Sort of the behavioral version of vestigal limb, way down at some fundamental nervous system level.
It seems like it helps the brain switch modes (from low activity to high and from high activity to low). So yawning could help prepare the brain to pay attention to something important, as well as wind down for the evening. Hence both morning and evening yawns.
The contagious aspect could be as simple as “Oh, you’re changing modes? I should get ready to do the same.”
Are there any other involuntary social signals?
….erections?
I do prefer to let my erection do the talking.
^ -me to the police officer who pulled me over and asked if I knew how fast I was going.
Name checks out
… anyone who is naturally expressive and has genuine, authentic responses that go against whatever current sociocultural norms are?
Hey, popular person told a dumb, offensive joke, that validates my internal insecurities by projecting derision outward onto some kind of minority group!
(Face twists up into disgust, shock, and maybe pity)
WTF is wrong with you, popular person is funny! We hate you now!
Body language in general.
Dogs wag their tails in order to spread their happy pheromones by waving furiously. They unconsciously want everyone to know they are having a good time. When they are scared, they tuck their tail between their legs in order not to spread their stress pheromones by moving the air around their glands.
Have you seen a stork yawn? They push their spine out through their mouth
Best I can find, the 20 “most argued” reasons for yawning, at least the 20 most in 1999
Increase alertness
Decrease alertness
lmao
My idea is that yawing helps sync our internal clocks. So, we sleep at the same time, and wake up at the same time. That way, no one is left behind when the group starts moving to the next waterhole, or feeding ground.
Except nocturnal circadian cycles were evolutionary in nature. The pack wanted someone awake at all times to protect from predators.
Snake yawns are the most cute of yawns and I will fight every one who says otherwise.
Yawning is more about getting more oxygen in your system. Which sometimes can be due to you being sleepy and not breathing as well as normal, but not always to do with tiredness.
I think when you see someone else yawn, you do the same to make sure you’re just as on point as they are. Since more oxygen in your system means you’ll operate more efficiently.
I think that’s correct, anyway? If someone knows better, please correct me
Sounds like a plausible theory. I wonder how extensively it’s been studied. I’d like to know if it’s unique to humans. Figuring out which species do it would give a clue to when it evolved
I’ve yawned three times already reading through all these comments.
It’s early morning for me, it’s not fair.
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This seems like such bullshit pseudoscience. Anyone have any real data to back this up?
I got you fam:
Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22163307/
That abstract is not very convincing to me if I’m being honest.
That’s okay. You asked for real data. You can find more if you care to search peer reviewed articles. I’m not trying to convince you of anything, just showing that it is a real topic of study.
Can confirm, I do struggle with empathy (more in the autism way than the socio/psychopath way though) and don’t really catch yawns from anyone. I will still pretend to yawn when someone else does though, because I know that not doing that will make them subconsciously wary of me
Not everyone will get wary if you don’t yawn. Same way as not everyone thinks the same way about yawns, or just over analyze what others do.
But good for you to try mixin and minglin with the neurotypical crowd :)
Just keep it relaxed
Co2
Isn’t the leading theory that yawning is more about cooling down the brain temp rather than a lack of oxygen or buildup of CO2?
Yeah, you are correct. There are several reasons. :)
Which does nothing to explain why it’s “contagious”.
I thought the idea was that back when we were in settlements, keeping watch out into the dark, the yawn would happen to a sentry if nothing was going on and would subconsciously signal to other humans, even the watch dogs that " nothing is going on, all is well" then spreading throughout the camp as sort of a psychic link, literally conveying information at the speed of light to anyone who can see you.
At least that’s what some article I read had to say about it
I’d say for empathy and humans showing connection by yawning when others do.
What? You’re hungry? Well, I’ll just make you yawn
You hit the gym and are having a good session, guess what
This. I have started to wonder if yawns are actually a way to wake up. We know little about them. Some brain scans showed that we refresh the blood around our brain, like changing the water in a fish bowl.
I used to yawn incessantly during warmups before rugby matches. My coach would yell at me to get my head into the game. I kept telling him it’s just what happens when I’m warming up it doesn’t mean anything!
