• Question: Why are yawns infectious?

    Asked by simsonadventure365 to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 4 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      there are a lot of theories about this. One is it’s a pack animal instict, triggering a response in all around signalling it’s time to go to sleep. Generally we yawn to clear our the carbon dioxide in our wind pipes to bring the bloods toxicity down, but as to why we ‘catch’ a yawn, there is no definative answer, I’m yawning just thinging about yawning.

    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      It’s not just yawning – we unconsciously copy all sorts of behaviour off each other, especially facial behaviours. Try this experiement – next time you are talking to someone, scratch your nose, if you do it a few times, chances are, they will too! Psychologists think we do this to make each other feel comfortable – its an unconscious way of saying – look, I’m like you!

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