Why always when someone yawns another one nearby also yawns, is it infectious, anybody can tell me.?

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Princess	Go to this site. http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/wondrous-world/yawn-contagious Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

The Great Gazoo	Must be I yawned reading this question Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Allen L	Contagious most likely because you see someone else doing it and the message gets passed to the brain. Also if a person starts yawning most likely of boredom, and others around are likely in the same environment doing the same thing so yes it can definitely pass around. :) Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

JM	i've actually read articles that said they are contagious. you see them and something registers in your brain and you yawn! best wishes Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

lisa l	ummm I have no idea but it happens most of the time... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Lars .	when someone yawns and someone else sees it triggers a sense in the brain that triggers a yawn, its a scientific thing. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Inara	It is infectuous. I'm sure almost everybody has tested this at some point in their lives. A yawn is a very deep breath and the usual cause of it is that we are tired and our breathing has fallen below what it needed, so we are trying to make it up quickly. The yawn that comes when we see someone else yawning though is due to what is called suggestion. One example of suggestion is when we become afraid because we see someone else showing fear. Another is when we laugh because everyone around us is laughing. The power of suggestion makes a yawn very catching. "Almost every vertebrate animal studied, from fish to cats and dogs, yawns spontaneously as part of an evolutionary, ancient, reflex response. Only humans and chimps, and possibly the macaque monkey, have been shown in scientific tests to yawn infectiously One theory is that it has something to do with the fact that humans once lived in troupes, just like chimpanzees, and that it was important to co-ordinate sleeping, and so serving as a social signal. The latest study, however, pinpoints the fact that contagious yawning appears to involve the very human trait of emotional empathy. Humans, uniquely, are able to imagine what someone else is thinking or feeling. This is at the heart of empathy, and a reason why one can feel the need to yawn while watching someone else yawn." Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Nyanna	I think it's just a natural uncontrollable behavior and we have to live with it. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

ROFLMAOLOL	It is a psychological reaction whenever you see someone yawn. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Star	Yawning is so contagious. Once my friends and I thought it would be funny to see if we could get our whole class to yawn. It actually worked even the teacher yawned then we got yelled at but it was so funny. Because you can't exactly stop it. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

effin drunk	Nobody knows. Seriously. They haven't figured it out yet. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Coaster X	That just happened to my last hour in choir. Someone next to me yawned then i yawned Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Serge	its just a habit - if 2 people do sumthin boring, its not long before the both of them yawn Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

sjkk1	It is... They did it on Myth Busters... and Confirmed it was infectious. RESULTS: * Is Yawning Contagious?: CONFIRMED, but not by much. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Kate D	It's the power of suggestion. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

hoplessromantic	im not even kidding, i read that someone just yawned, and it made me yawn. haha Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

kaitlin.< 3	No, yawns aren't infectious, they're contagious. When someone yawns, another person yawns. Yawns can be infectious if you're sick, because everyone has germs. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Spartacus	Oh oh! I know this! There was a study conducted on this. The study concluded that it was "contagious". A group of students were show a slide of a smile, and about 20% of them smiled. Then another group of students were show a picture of someone yawning, and 80% yawned! Hope that helps! <Spartacus> Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Sugar	That is true even if you are not sleepy. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

gldjns	Scientists have wondered about this for years, but haven't really come up with a scientific answer. They theorize that when you see someone yawn, it's a subconscious power of suggestion. It seems to work every time. I always yawn every time I see someone else do it. It's really uncanny, but I can't give you an exact answer. I'm glad sneezes don't work the same way, though, or other bodily "expressions"! lol! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

tobealonewithyou	hmmmm i got told that its an instict that if somebody yawns then we do it to as we think there stealing our o2!! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Samantha Thompson	It's just contagious. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Drew K	Contagiousness The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn.[3][10] Observing another person's yawning face (especially his/her eyes), or even reading about or thinking about yawning, can cause a person to yawn.[3][11] However, only about 55% of people in a given audience will respond to such a stimulus; fewer if only the mouth is shown in a visual stimulus.[12]The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain.[13] Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse. A 2007 study found that children with autism Spectrum disorders, unlike typical children, did not yawn after seeing videos of other people yawning; this supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy.[14] To look at the issue in terms of evolutionary advantage, if there is one at all, yawning might be a herd instinct.[15] Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods of activity. This phenomenon has been observed among various primates. The threat gesture is a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. Specific studies were conducted on chimpanzees[16] and stumptail macaques[17]. A group of these animals was shown a video of other conspecifics yawning, and both chimpanzees and stumptail macaques yawned also. This helps to partly confirm a yawn's "contagiousness". Gordon Gallup, who hypothesizes that yawning may be a means of keeping the brain cool, also hypothesizes that "contagious" yawning may be a survival instinct inherited from our evolutionary past. "During human evolutionary history when we were subject to predation and attacks by other groups, if everybody yawns in response to seeing someone yawn, the whole group becomes much more vigilant, and much better at being able to detect danger." Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

child of God	Seems to me it is lol. It happens with a cough too. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Schnurrkatze76	...scientists found out it´s an early form of body language we developed back when we all were cavemen...same with smiling...it´s supposed to show a feeling of togetherness...sorry, my english is not perfect, I´m german, but I hope you get what I mean... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Ehrstabk	Studies have shown that yawning really is contagious. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

rlsaunders2	It is due to the power of suggestion. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Bill G	That is actaully a scientific fact , that when someone yawns it makes the other person do that as well in most cases.........it is basically "power of suggestion"and makes the brain think you are tired and you need oxygen to your body (that is the reason you yawn in the first place, because your body and brain are tired and are wanting extra oxygen to continue moving along) So basically that is the reason that happens. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

ღஐcavalier de fantômeஐღ	Mythbusters had an episode where they experimented that - found it true. (The most plausible explanation, and the one that is taught in medical school, is that we yawn because oxygen levels in our lungs are low. Studies have shown that during normal, at-rest breathing, we don’t use anywhere near our lung capacity; for the most part, we just use the air sacs at the bottom of the lungs. If the air sacs, called alveoli, don’t get fresh air, they partially collapse and the lungs stiffen a bit. As a result, it’s believed, our brain prompts the body to either sigh or take a yawn to get more air into the lungs.) Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

becky m	the brain wants more o2, yes its contagious Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Monty B	I just yawned... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No