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Speaker 1: from how stuff Works dot Com? Hi, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com with me or two of
Speaker 1: my favorite editors, Chris Palette and Candice Gibson. Are you
Speaker 1: guys today doing all right? Candice? What about you? That was?
Speaker 1: That was a yawn from Candice? And actually I strangely
Speaker 1: feel like yawning right now, which reminds me of an
Speaker 1: article I wrote once. It's called does contagious yawning Mean
Speaker 1: You're nice? Are you guys familiar with this? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pretty amazing to think that something we don't know much about,
Speaker 1: like yawning, could actually be passed on because you see
Speaker 1: somebody on and you have an empathetic feeling toward that person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of amazing, Candice. Yeah. And not only
Speaker 1: is yawning a strange phenomenon, Empsy is pretty strange too,
Speaker 1: depending on how it's expressed. And empathy, just to bring
Speaker 1: you up to speed is just essentially the way that
Speaker 1: you're relating to another person that shows that you're trying
Speaker 1: to experience the feelings that they're experiencing, be them, you know,
Speaker 1: positive or negative. UM. Empathy just shows that you're in
Speaker 1: tune of what the other person is doing. You can
Speaker 1: identify with them, you can put yourself in their shoes,
Speaker 1: and a nutshell, perfect nutshell. That's pretty much the link
Speaker 1: that people. Well, researchers have concluded that that we yawn
Speaker 1: contagiously or were susceptible the contagious yawning because we feel empathy.
Speaker 1: But that's pretty much where the solid explanations go. And
Speaker 1: Candice is actually yawning. I can't get over it. I'm
Speaker 1: just that nice. But you know, I did want to
Speaker 1: tell you guys a little bit about yawning and some
Speaker 1: of the theories that are floating around out there about it.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't just mean you're what sleepy board
Speaker 1: all the above, that's true. It could it could be
Speaker 1: a number of things. Um. Some researchers have even gone
Speaker 1: so far as to suggest that it could be a
Speaker 1: little bit like your teeth or you're not your teeth,
Speaker 1: your dog's tea when they he or she is baring
Speaker 1: their teeth, the show anger or you know, they're being defensive.
Speaker 1: They're saying, you know, maybe you are doing this you know,
Speaker 1: subliminal response that you are going, you know, don't mess
Speaker 1: with me. Yeah, don't mess with me exactly. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, people have even said that they can yawn
Speaker 1: at their dog and their dog will yawn back. So
Speaker 1: maybe the maybe it's something there to that theory. So
Speaker 1: have they found in studies that people yawn when their
Speaker 1: dogs bear their teeth at them? Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't see anything suggesting that, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: but uh, but it is interesting to know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: I think you were saying earlier that uh, it may
Speaker 1: actually be linked to a fight or flight response. Um,
Speaker 1: and that you know when you put it that way,
Speaker 1: that it's not so uh not so strange. Sure, we
Speaker 1: were talking about the African savannah, the fight, the fight
Speaker 1: or flight response you mean, right, well, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: theory that um, contagious yawning. Well, since you yawn maybe
Speaker 1: to make yourself more alert, which would be ful when
Speaker 1: you feel fear. Yeah, it's because it carries blood to
Speaker 1: your brain right now, alert exactly. And if you feel
Speaker 1: fierce safe because the lions approaching and you yawned a response. Uh,
Speaker 1: through empathy, a fellow member of your species could pick
Speaker 1: up that yawn and pass it along, and before you know,
Speaker 1: if there's no one there for the lion to eat,
Speaker 1: because they've all got adult, they got out of there.
Speaker 1: Another theory has to do with the eyes as cues.
Speaker 1: Have you guys heard about this the eyes? Have it? Actually?
Speaker 1: A researcher that I read about did a study to
Speaker 1: try and since the yawning his contagious, he wanted to
Speaker 1: try and find a yawn that would would get everybody,
Speaker 1: and the best he could do was about people who
Speaker 1: when he'd cover up the mouth, um the eyes still
Speaker 1: made people yawned, because he assumed that it was the big,
Speaker 1: wide open mouth and the stretch that made people want
Speaker 1: to yawn. But when he covered up the eyes and
Speaker 1: just showed the mouth by itself, he got a slightly
Speaker 1: less response. And he never could find a yawn that
Speaker 1: was the perfect storm, one that would have always make
Speaker 1: people yawned. So it seems like it's the eyes right
Speaker 1: buy into that, because it's not like the parts of
Speaker 1: your face don't work in conjunction with each other. When
Speaker 1: I smile, my eyes crinkle or you know when I sneeze,
Speaker 1: sign my news scrunches up. Everything sort of works in
Speaker 1: conjunction with each other. So I totally buy that. And
Speaker 1: another theory I buy is that people yawned because their
Speaker 1: bodies aren't getting enough oxygen. And that's a quick way
Speaker 1: to gulp a whole lot of air right in. It's
Speaker 1: just open your mouth as well as it can go
Speaker 1: and get it inside. And if others see you daring this,
Speaker 1: they might take a cue that their environment isn't supplying
Speaker 1: them with enough oxygen either, so they yawn just when
Speaker 1: you do. Apparently, the fact that the eyes are served
Speaker 1: as a cue for contagious yawning, it's supported by a
Speaker 1: study of autistics or people with autism. Um that they
Speaker 1: showed slides of people yawning, but they were shown just
Speaker 1: the just the mouths. And apparently people with autism get
Speaker 1: their cues from people's eyes. Uh, and they had no
Speaker 1: action to it whatsoever. Um. Well, yeah, which is interesting,
Speaker 1: and we know just sort of general science that people
Speaker 1: with autism have um a little bit less of an
Speaker 1: understanding of people's verbal or non verbal cues and said,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that they didn't get both parts work in
Speaker 1: conjunction to have an empathetic response, but that they just
Speaker 1: responded to the eyes. Well, it's it's going to require
Speaker 1: more study. And if you're interested in studying this for yourself,
Speaker 1: you know what we suggestion as you start with does
Speaker 1: contagious yawning mean you're nice? That's available on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. We're all gonna go take maps. For
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
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