Are yawns contagious across different species?
Asked by
Nimis (
13255
)
September 19th, 2012
from iPhone
Most people yawn when they see another person yawn.
But would they yawn if they saw for instance a dog yawn?
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9 Answers
Yes. That exact thing happened to an old supervisor of mine.
@wonderingwhy I love that there was an actual study done on this.
If I yawn and my German Shepherd is in the room, he will yawn too.
Hahah…the neighbors horse and I were triggered yawning the other day. She yawned then so did I. How funny!
Not only is it contagious between different species, it’s also contagious between living and non-living things- reading this thread made me yawn. :-o
I’m not being snarky and saying that I think this thread is boring; it’s just that reading about it actually triggered that response from me. I guess yawning can be a very suggestible reaction.
It made me yawn, too, @Brian1946! I seem to remember a Fluther thread from long ago that showed a video of a yawning bird, and nearly all of us in the thread yawned when we saw it. It does seem to be very suggestible. On a side note, one of my daughters doesn’t have the typical yawn reaction. She can watch 10 people yawning, and never feel the urge to do it herself. I guess it isn’t universally suggestive, huh?
@augustlan That’s interesting. I never considered that some people are resistant. I tend to buy into the theory that yawns are contagious to help induce rest/sleep in a group at the same time. Maybe your daughter would be the look out. LOL.
I just yawned twice while writing this by the way.
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