Why Is Yawning Contagious? The Science Behind Catching a Yawn

Have you ever watched someone yawn and suddenly felt the urge to yawn yourself? You might have even started yawning just by reading about it. This familiar phenomenon is known as contagious yawning, and it is one of the most interesting examples of how human behaviour can be influenced by what we see, hear or even think about.

Yawning itself is a physiological behaviour. Yawning is when you are tired, relaxed, bored or change from one state of being to another. But contagious yawning is different because you can feel it when someone else yawns. Scientists have been studying the phenomenon for years, but there is still no single explanation that explains why yawns spread from one person to another.

What is contagious yawning?

Contagious yawning refers to the tendency to yawn after seeing, hearing or sometimes even thinking about another person yawning. Unlike an ordinary yawn, which can occur spontaneously (and often also from an external social or mental cue), a contagious yawn seems to be formed by an external social or mental cue.

The effect can happen very quickly. Someone sitting nearby may yawn, and within seconds another person may do the same. And sometimes videos, pictures and even conversations about yawning can trigger the response. So contagious yawning is a good example of how the brain reacts to social information.

Why does seeing a yawn trigger another yawn?

Researchers have proposed a number of explanations for contagious yawning. One possibility is that it’s related to social behavior (and to human beings’ automatic reactions to the actions of other people around them).

We observe and interpret other people’s behaviour daily. We naturally imitate facial expressions, gestures and movements, and often not deliberately. Contagious yawning may be a part of this larger tendency to respond to socially relevant behaviours.

Another theory is empathy. Some research has indicated that people may be more likely to feel yawns from people with whom they have a social or emotional connection. Friends, family members and people who know each other might have more contagious yawns than strangers.

But empathy and contagious yawning are not clear. Scientists are still trying to find out whether empathy is a cause or whether other factors like attention and social familiarity are also involved.

What is the role of the brain?

The brain plays a crucial role in processing the sight of another person yawning. When we see a yawn, we know the movement and we can activate networks that are responsible for watching and reacting to other people’s actions.

It is not necessarily that the brain is just copying the movement. It may be that a yawn is a social cue that increases the likelihood of producing the same behaviour.

Attention may also matter. If you don’t pay attention to another person’s face, you might not notice their yawn and therefore have less of a contagious response. And that could explain why social environment and how we think of people can affect whether or not a yawn is “caught.”

Is contagious yawning related to tiredness?

Tiredness can certainly make people yawn more often, but contagious yawning is not always due to sleepiness alone. A person who is alert can still yawn after seeing someone else yawn.

Yawning itself is associated with changes in alertness and occurs during transitions between sleep and wakefulness. However, when a contagious yawn occurs, the trigger is social rather than simply the body’s need for rest.

This distinction is important because yawning has more than one possible trigger. A person might yawn because they’re tired or they just woke up, or someone nearby yawns.

Why do people catch yawns so easily?

Not everyone reacts to contagious yawning exactly the same way. Some people may immediately yawn after seeing another person do it, while others may not react at all.

Differences in attention, social connection, age and individual brain responses can affect the likelihood of catching a yawn. Personality and empathy have also been considered as factors in the response, but findings have not always been consistent.

The variability is one of the reasons why scientists continue to investigate contagious yawning. What appears to be a simple everyday behaviour may involve many interacting processes in the brain and in the body.

Can thinking about yawning make you yawn?

Interestingly, just thinking about yawning can also trigger the urge. Allowing people to think about yawning shows how strongly there is an instinct that yawning is important when we think about it.

Once our brain is paying attention to the behaviour, the sense of wanting to yawn can be more apparent. This can be a very curious cycle: thinking about yawning means you will feel better about yawning, which is more likely to happen.

Small behaviour (bigger mystery)

Contagious yawning may be an insignificant everyday event, yet it opens the way to discover social behaviour, attention and the brain’s response to other people.

There is no single explanation for why yawns are contagious, but research has been initiated from the neuroscience, psychological and behavioral aspects. The connection between yawning and social awareness and empathy is very interesting, but scientists have yet to establish a simple cause-and-effect relationship.

So the next time someone yawns and you suddenly feel the same urge, know that your response may be more than coincidence. Your brain is always peering at the people around you and responding to social cues — and sometimes a yawn is all it takes to start a chain reaction.