Women Respond More Frequently to Contagious Yawning

Does your friend's yawn make you yawn too? It is because yawning is contagious. But women are more prone to this phenomenon than men, revealed a new study.

Yawning is common around friends or with someone you share a close bond. Not only humans even animals like chimpanzee, dogs can also exhibit this phenomenon.

‘Women respond more than men to a yawning friend and it may be due to empathy.’

Researchers from the University of Pisa in Italy observed humans in natural environments over a period of nearly five years. They recorded 1,461 bouts of yawning and restricted their analysis to 92 pairs of people who experienced, at least, three separate instances of yawn contagion.

They found that people don't yawn spontaneously without a social trigger and women responded much more frequently to another person's yawn than men.

"The ability to preconsciously decode and replicate the emotions of others, e.g. via yawn contagion and facial mimicry, may allow women to respond with more appropriate behaviors toward others and to be more successful in forming enduring alliances," the authors wrote.

Source: Medindia