• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

Study: Mystery of contagious yawning remains unsolved

March 16, 2014 By Contributor

Study: Mystery of contagious yawning remains unsolved

Warning: This article will make you yawn.

We all known yawning is contagious, but no one seems to understand exactly why that’s the case. And it now seems, according to a new study, that the mystery will remain unsolved.

According to a study published in PLOS ONE, empathy is not the cause of contagious yawning, ruling out just one more proposed cause.

“Empathy does play a role, but it’s just not the huge role people were thinking,” says Elizabeth Cirulli, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, and lead author of the new study published on Friday.

The research included 328 healthy adults, ages 18 to 83. Participants took tests that measure empathetic traits, such as feeling distress over another person’s misfortune and easily identifying with fictional characters. They also took cognitive performance tests, because one previous study suggested contagious yawning might be linked with higher intelligence, Cirulli noted.

Participants then watched a three-minute video showing lots of people yawning, and clicked on a button each time they yawned. The results showed nearly 68 percent yawned at least once. The average was four times, with one person yawning 15 times alone.

When 129 of the subjects watched the video a second time, those who yawned the first time were likely to yawn again, suggesting that whatever causes contagious yawning is a stable trait.

Easy-yawners did score a bit higher on the tests of empathy and cognitive performance. Those differences faded away when researchers factored in age. In the final statistical analysis, only age was clearly associated with contagious yawning: Younger adults showed the most susceptibility.

Cirulli, a genetics researcher, leans toward some yet-to-be-determined genetic difference that will explain yawning susceptibility. She also hopes her findings shed some light on schizophrenia and autism, since people with those disorders don’t do much contagious yawning.

Previous research found that contagious yawning is most common among family members, followed by friends, acquaintances, and then strangers. In an unpublished study, Steven Platek, an associate professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College, says he found that whites and blacks tend to yawn together along racial lines.

Scientists aren’t sure why people yawn on their own, when tired or bored, though the leading theory is that it has something to do with cooling the brain.

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Health, None

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2021 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress