Little fella makes me yawn in sympathy. Is it contagious?
I checked if it was still considered an empathic response, and found a link for this full free study from last year that seems to confirm that is still the case between humankind and beastkind in both directions. I’ll have to read this later today.
The paper has some fancy graphs and doesn’t look like it should take too long to read.
The Role of Empathic Concern and Gender on Interspecific Contagious Yawning in Humans
Simple Summary
Contagious yawning (CY) has garnered considerable interest in the fields of psychology and animal behavior, particularly as it relates to the potential connection this response has with empathy or emotional contagion. Recent reports have explored this association through the study of interspecific CY, whereby the detection of yawns from one species trigger yawning in a different species. While the evidence for interspecific CY is robust, links to empathy have been inconsistent. Here, we sought to explore this relationship more explicitly in humans by assessing how interspecific CY in response to images of yawns from common household pets relates to individual differences in empathic concern. The results provide further evidence for interspecific CY in humans, but self-reported empathic concern was a negative predictor of this response. We also found no sex difference in interspecific CY, though when comparing the sexes across the CY conditions, women reported a higher frequency of yawning in response to dog yawns, and men reported a higher frequency of yawning in response to cat yawns. Overall, these findings do not support a strong connection between interspecific CY and empathy or emotional contagion.
Abstract
Interspecific contagious yawning (CY), whereby yawns from one species trigger yawning in different species, has now been reported across various taxa. This response to human yawning appears common among animals in captivity and has been interpreted as an empathic response towards human handlers/caregivers. A recent study found that humans also display interspecific CY, though this response was not modulated by proxies of empathic processing (i.e., phylogenetic relatedness or social closeness to the animals). Here, we explored this relationship more explicitly by assessing how interspecific CY to yawns from common household pets relates to self-reported empathic concern. Participants (N = 103) completed a survey measuring empathic concern and then reported on their yawning behavior following exposure to a control condition or yawning images either from domesticated cats or domesticated dogs. The results provide further evidence for interspecific CY in humans, but empathic concern was negatively predictive of this response. There was also no sex difference in interspecific CY, though when comparing the sexes across CY conditions, women reported a higher frequency of yawning in response to dog yawns, and men reported a higher frequency of yawning in response to cat yawns. Overall, these findings do not support a strong connection between interspecific CY and empathy or emotional contagion.
It’s so great how even a light-hearted comment can trigger your scientific curiosity and puts you into teacher mode! 🍎
Good, I worry it is too much at times.
I was reading a thread the other day about whether an OP should be active in the comments or not. Most people seemed to feel only if the post was a question, otherwise it was steering conversation too much and not letting threads be organic.
Our comment sections are so small though, unless I get into a deeper conversation with you guys.
I’d think anyone here solely for entertainment is just clicking on the pic and then moving on, but you guys in the comments are looking for some conversation or banter. To me, that’s making the most of us being a small forum. Me responding to you all individually to me is me following where you are taking things. That’s how I intend it anyway. I haven’t driven you all off by now, so that can’t be too inaccurate! 😅
thinking OP shouldn’t be in the comments is so weird. you should start a conversation but not take part?
in any case, i check the comments here to see what new interesting things i can learn!
The only time I can think of where it would be obnoxious for an OP to comment is if they ask a question, but then just shoot down whatever replies they get, like the Change My Mind meme guy, just disingenuous stuff.
I’m glad every day to see you guys getting something positive from the things I share.
Poor little fellow! 🥺
Stay right there and I’ll be right back with a big pile of grasshoppers!
