• Question: why are yawns contagious?

    • Keywords:
      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
      Asked by laurenwaring to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Shreesha on 18 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: Shreesha Bhat

        Shreesha Bhat answered on 18 Mar 2015:

        people used to relate contagious yawning with empathy, but a recent study disapproves that. So, nobody has any clue why yawning is contagious!

      • Photo: Anaïs Pujol

        Anaïs Pujol answered on 18 Mar 2015:

        Hi Laurenwaring, It is a good question. According to neurologists, it is due to a mirror neurons, which are cells which are activated to reproduce gesture from someone observed.
        In sociology point of view, will be empathy.

      • Photo: Peter Maskell

        Peter Maskell answered on 19 Mar 2015:

        we are unsure but here is a bbc article with some ideas:-

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6270036.stm

    Comments