Question: Why do we yawn after seeing someone else yawn?

Jess Bean answered on 18 Jun 2013:

There is no agreed answer about this but there are several theories.

One of the most popular theories (with some scientific research backing it up) is that it’s an ’empathetic’ response, something like copying behaviour of other humans around us. This has been shown by observing people copying yawning and seeing that people are more likely to copy a family member’s yawn than someone un-related.

I wouldn’t say wikipedia is a reliable place to look for information but it does explain some ideas about ‘contagious yawning’.