'Curious' Why Yawning Is So Contagious

WBZ

It's an age old question that has baffled science, and Steve from Pembroke is Curious about it too: "Why is yawning contagious?"

Believe it or not there are people who study yawning, and they have some answers.

A surprising number of people are curious about the phenomenon of contagious yawning.

About 12,000 people have posted YouTube videos, trying to get viewers to yawn.

We put some of them together and asked people to take a look. Many people said watching the video of other people yawning made them want to yawn.

"I normally yawn when I see other people yawn, yes," one woman said.

But why is that?

Doctors have been talking about this for years. Dr. Seuss's sleep book says, "A yawn is quite catching you see, Like a cough. It takes one yawn To start other yawns off."

But Dr. Seuss doesn't say why -- Why you'll yawn, then I'll yawn, Just walking by.

"It's still pretty mysterious. It's almost like, we don't understand why we can't tickle ourselves," said psychologist Tim Eddy.

Dr. Eddy teaches psychology at Salem State. He says the mystery is beginning to unravel, and it starts with showing empathy.

"The greater degree of empathy a person has, the more contagiously, the more likely they will contagiously yawn," he explained.

It actually says a lot about us as a society -- that we will contagiously yawn and empathize with each other.

And it kind of makes us the humans that we are.

But humans aren't the only ones that yawn. Plenty of animals do, too. There's even research showing that dogs will yawn if they see people yawning -- empathy from man's best friend.

But why do we yawn? Not because it's preparing us for sleep. It's actually waking us up.

"As you draw in the air it has the effect of bringing a greater degree of cooling capacity for your brain," Eddy said.

The extra air causes people to become more alert and perk up a bit.

Let us know what you are Curious about

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