Yawning is one of the involuntary reflex actions of the body. All human beings and a good number of other animals also yawn. The funny part of it is that sometimes a person yawns and another person follows suit thereafter just because of the first person\u2019s yawn. It is fascinating the way people react when others do so. The question is, why do we yawn when others yawn? Is there a correlation? To answer this question, we first need to understand what yawning is in detail.<\/p>\n
Yawning can be defined as the reflex of inhalation of air that is followed by exhalation. When a person yawns, there is stretching of muscles in the eardrums. When a person yawns and stretches at the same time, it is called pandiculation. In most cases, the acts of yawning and sometimes pandiculation are attributed to tiredness, fatigue, boredom, stress. Some studies have managed to show that yawning is a way of cooling the brain.<\/p>\n
Chimpanzees, dogs and humans experience a phenomenon called infectious yawning. This is when a person yawns on the phone, during a one to one conversation or when they are near other people and infect them with the yawn. Simply put, yawning in human beings is contagious. Laymen often attribute the act of yawning to the need for more oxygen in the body, but scientists have not been able to prove that. Instead, they have proven that the act of yawning has more of a cooling effect on the body than increasing the supply of oxygen to the bloodstream. So, why do we yawn when others yawn<\/em>?<\/strong> Here are two theories to explain that.<\/p>\n Studies have been able to show that there is an effect of empathy in yawning when other people yawn this maybe why do we yawn<\/strong> when others yawn<\/strong>. This is common in people who have relationships. For instance, it is normal to find someone yawning because another person he or she cares about yawned. Such contagious yawns are not common when strangers are involved. Contagious yawning is therefore a reaction of sympathy and identification. You are more likely to yawn when you stare or look into the face or eyes of the person yawning especially if you know him or her and have a personal relationship.<\/p>\n The personality of a person also has something to do with the contagious yawns. There are people who are empathetic and there are those who are less empathetic. The empathetic ones tend to experience a stronger tendency to have the yawn reflex. This also means that there is a strong correlation between the degree or level of empathy in a person\u2019s traits and contagious yawning. Empathetic people are more likely to yawn when they see another person yawning compared to those who are less empathetic.<\/p>\n It is common for us human beings to yawn when we see other people yawn even when we are not bored, tired or sleepy. Sometimes people yawn simply by reading about the concept of yawning itself! Scientific studies have tried to show that the yawn reflex is related to our evolution. The act produces the effect of synchronization in the group of people we are with. The phenomenon is also called herd unity, which is important for the survival of our ancestors when life was still lived in the wild.<\/p>\n Another explanation to \u201cwhy do we yawn when others yawn<\/strong>\u201d is that when we yawn, something in the brain that triggers it. Mirror neurons in the brain are responsible for the imitations we do when other people do something. Scientists explain that when we are in a room with another person where we can witness them yawn as opposed to seeing them yawn on television, the mirror neurons become active and make us yawn by involuntary imitation.<\/p>\n Although yawning is a reflex action that is said to be involuntary, there are situations when a person does the act to mean something else. For instance, a person can yawn when they are bored of something, but the difference with this kind of reflex is that it is not involuntary but deliberate. Still, this kind can trigger imitation in people who are close even though it was not involuntary in the originator.<\/p>\n Why Do We Yawn When Others Yawn? Yawning is one of the involuntary reflex actions of the body. All human beings and a good number of other animals also yawn. The funny part of it is that sometimes a person yawns and another person follows suit thereafter just because of the first person\u2019s yawn. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[113,114,115],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-network","tag-what-is-yawning","tag-why-do-we-yawn-when-others-yawn","tag-yawning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/pasully\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Empathy and the Yawn Reflex<\/h2>\n
Sympathy and Yawning<\/h2>\n
Why do we yawn when others yawn<\/strong>?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"