Why does someone next to us yawn seem to infect us with the yawn? Despite the fact that the act of yawning has always been considered "contagious" even for animals, a new study led by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina (USA) denies that this action is produced by simple empathy .
Why some people are more or less susceptible to spontaneous yawning remains a mystery , since even people with autism or schizophrenia (which involve impaired social skills) also suffer from this "transmission of yawning" , although to a lesser extent.
The work, which has been published in the magazine Plos One , explains that the contagion of yawning can decrease with age and is not linked to fatigue , boredom or energy levels.
To rule out this relationship with empathy, the team of researchers conducted an experiment with 328 volunteers : all of them underwent cognitive tests, a demographic survey, and a questionnaire on empathy, sleepiness, and energy. In addition, the participants had to watch a 3-minute video of uninterrupted yawning . The results showed that 222 of the participants responded to the contagion of yawning at least once. However, the examination of the rest of the data determined that empathy did not have any type of connection with yawning, and the age of the participant did . At an older age, individuals were less likely to yawn.
