Why Seeing Someone Yawn Makes You Yawn Too

Sometimes you do not even need to see the person. Hearing someone talk about yawning, reading the word ‘yawn’ or simply thinking about it can make you feel like doing it yourself. But why does this happen?

Your Brain Notices Other People

Humans are constantly picking up small signals from the people around them. Facial expressions, gestures, posture and body movements can all attract our attention, often without us deliberately deciding to notice them.

A yawn is one of those behaviours that can trigger a response in some people. When you see someone yawn, your brain processes the person's movement and may automatically prepare a similar response. Researchers have studied this phenomenon as a possible example of how our brains respond to the behaviour of other people.

Attention seems to matter too. If you are watching someone closely, you may be more likely to notice their yawn and respond to it. But if you are completely absorbed in your phone, a book or a conversation, you might not even register that someone nearby has yawned. So contagious yawning is not quite as automatic as it feels.

It May Have A Social Connection

Scientists have also explored whether contagious yawning has something to do with social awareness and our ability to respond to other people.

Some studies have reported associations between contagious yawning and social relationships, suggesting that the behaviour may be influenced by how closely people relate to one another. However, the evidence is mixed, and researchers have not established one simple explanation for why yawning spreads between people.

What we do know is that people vary considerably. Some individuals seem highly susceptible to contagious yawning. They can watch one person yawn and immediately join in. Others can sit through an entire room full of yawning people without feeling the slightest urge to copy them. Age, attention, individual differences and the situation itself may all influence whether someone catches a yawn.

Yawning Is More Complicated Than You Think

Yawning itself is also more complicated than the popular idea that we yawn simply because our bodies need more oxygen. Research has challenged that explanation, and scientists now consider yawning a behaviour involving several physiological and behavioural processes.

We tend to yawn around changes in alertness. You might yawn when you are tired, relaxed, bored or moving between different states of wakefulness. That means a yawn can occur when your body and brain are shifting from one level of alertness to another.

This may help explain why seeing someone yawn can feel so contagious. You are not simply copying a random facial movement. Your brain is noticing another person's behaviour while also responding to the surrounding context. And there is a funny little psychological twist: the more you think about yawning, the harder it can be to ignore the urge to yawn.

So if reading this article made you yawn, your brain may have just demonstrated the phenomenon for itself. Next time someone yawns across the room, watch what happens. Just don't blame us if you yawn too.