News

Yawning is Contagious

Yawning is contagious, we all know that, but a new study has suggested that it might not have anything to do with empathy.  The study, published in PLOS One, administered a three minute yawning video stimulus to 328 participants, 222 of whom contagiously yawned at least once with a range of 0 to 15 yawns. The study said the results revealed variables like empathy and tiredness had “little effect” on contagious yawning susceptibility.

Interestingly, age was the only variable with a significant influence on whether or not someone yawned, the study said, but was only able to explain 8% of the variation, which left “the majority of variation unexplained by any known factors.”

If you are yawning a lot, you may not be getting enough sleep.

Source: pharmacydaily.com.au, Friday 21 March 2014