is yawning really contagious?
154528
I don't know for sure, but i would say yes YAAAWWNN!
409583
No hiccups are not contagious but it might be possible to control them.  If one can control the hindbrain then it might be possible to contol ones hiccups...similar to people who can cause their eyes to shake rapidly.  \n\nSometimes if you get the hiccups then physcially try to hiccup again you won't hiccup (my friend does that to his daughter by telling her he'll give her a dollar if she would do it again, she usually can't)
1078201
This question has taken me a super long time to answer -- I've spent much of the time yawning every time I try to research! It's true! Are you yawning yet? Humans yawn when they see someone else yawn, read about yawning, think about yawning, or even just hear yawning. I can barely keep my hands on the keyboard because once I yawn, I tend to stretch and then rub my face.\n\nThe answer is, no one really knows why yawning is "contagious". Or why we yawn at all. One popular explanation is that yawning allows you to get rid of too much carbon dioxide in your system and increase your oxygen supply. This was disproved by Dr. Robert Provine and his research team in 1987.\n\nNow scientists are wondering if yawning is from our deep past -- part of our evolutionary history. Did a yawn signal to the group that it was time for everyone to retire to the trees and snooze? Did a yawn signal that we were all feeling cozy and warm about each other? Did a yawn signal something more like, "Gee, I know how you're feeling, I feel that way too."\n\nBetween 40 and 60 percent of the population seems to find yawning contagious. Researchers at the State University of New York conducted a series of yawning experiments. They determined that being self-aware (the ability to recognize oneself) and having the ability to see things from someone else's viewpoint means a person is more likely to find yawning contagious.\n\nNow you're thinking, what humans are not self-aware? Schizophrenics sometimes have trouble with self-recognition so they will not find yawning contagious. Babies won't yawn contagiously until they're more than a year old.\n\nSome birds and reptiles yawn. Most mammals yawn. My dog yawns, but that doesn't make me yawn -- I obviously cannot put myself in her paw prints. (But who can empathize with a creature that sleeps all day, then when she does bother to get up and join you on a walk, suddenly bolts after a squirrel and nearly tears your arm out of your socket? I have no idea what's going on in that dog's mind.)\n\nChimpanzees yawn too, and in fact, if they watch other chimps yawn, they're more likely to yawn too.\n\nSo, I guess the real answer is: who knows?
204275
Yawning or "pandiculation," is still pretty much a mystery to psychologists. (I just asked a friend in the trade.) Aside from the obvious observations of how it's related to boredom and how it gets "contagious" after a certain period of development in people, there isn't that much information on it. Sorry. (Hey, this is info from an old friend, so you might want to check newer sources.)
607567
Urge to yawn on seeing someone else yawn is called reflex yawning. When you see someone else yawn, it sends a message across your brain that you also need more oxygen and as a response your open your mouth wide in an attempt to get in more air and your lungs expand (i.e you yawn).
325601
Professor Andrews told Scientific American yawns may be contagious because we human animals are trying to communicate changing environmental conditions to others, possibly as a way to synchronize behavior. Obviously, this would be one of those caveman-type mechanisms that is no longer needed that our bodies remember and still do.\n\nWhen we yawn, we draw in more oxygen and remove a build-up of carbon dioxide. Larger groups produce more carbon dioxide. So one theory holds that we yawn when we're in large groups of people to purge the carbon dioxide--and in so doing, we set off a chain reaction. But Robert Provine, a psychologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, tested the theory and says it's bunk. Giving people additional oxygen didn't decrease yawning and decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in a subject's environment also didn't prevent yawning, notes the How Stuff Works Web site.\n\nWhatever the reason for yawns being contagious, How Stuff Works reports that 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn. In addition, blind people will yawn after hearing others yawning. And we're sure that reading and writing about yawns is enough to induce one!
526472
I learned somewhere that this is a survival thing--if you are yawning, there might be a lack of oxygen or you are about to need a lot of oxygen.  Your yawn alerts others so they supply themselves with oxygen as well.
462731
Cover your mouth if you want to, but it won't keep the next guy from "catching" your yawn.\nContagious yawning is real, scientists say, and it's "probably programmed into us," according to Dr. William Broughton, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of South Alabama Knollwood Hospital.\n\nThe action of a mouth opening is not what compels others to yawn, Broughton said. Studies have demonstrated that showing someone a photo of a wide-open mouth does not induce a yawn.\n\nConversely, holding a hand over the mouth while yawning doesn't prevent it from being contagious, Broughton said.\n\nContagious yawns appear "basically to be a visual response," Broughton said.\n\nBetween 40 and 60 percent of people who watch videos or hear talk about yawning also end up doing the deed, according to Nature News Service.\n\nResearchers from the State University of New York in Albany tested people to find out why some are susceptible to contagious yawning and deduced that self-aware or empathetic people are more likely to catch yawns, according to the news service.\n\n"Identifying with another's state of mind while they yawn may trigger an unconscious impersonation....The findings also explain why schizophrenics, who have particular difficulty in doing this, rarely catch yawns," Nature News Service reported.\n\nBroughton said contagious yawning may be a social phenomenon, allowing groups of humans to coordinate their times of sleep.\n\nRonald Baenninger, a professor in the psychology department at Temple University in Pennsylvania, has studied yawning and said that the contagiousness is the part we know the least about.\n\nOne hypothesis is that the phenomenon came about when ancestral humans lived in troops, and it was important for them to wake up at the same time. Yawning may have been a way for them to communicate the level of alertness among different group members, Baenninger said.\n\nToday, contagious yawning is just the result of evolution, an instinctive action, Baenninger said.\n\nThough other creatures yawn - including dogs, cats and even snakes - contagious yawning is a "purely human occurrence," Broughton said. It begins around age 2.\n\nBaenninger and his students conducted a study to see if the contagion works between species. The students went to the zoo to observe whether humans would yawn when the animals did. A few people yawned in response to a lion's yawn, but the lion never replicated the humans' behavior, Baenninger said.\n\nThere is some evidence that when one ape yawns, others will too, the professor said.\n\nBroughton said it's not clear what causes yawns. He defined yawning as "slow, involuntary gaping movements of the mouth," and said the word is derived from the Old English word ganien, which means "to gape."\n\nSpontaneous yawning begins in the embryonic stage, so it is not learned behavior, Broughton said.\n\nThe idea of a fetus yawning while in the womb goes along with the notion of the action being a way to prepare for something, Baenninger said.\n\nYawning appears to be associated with sleepiness, though the idea that it has to do with boredom is not necessarily true, Broughton said. It's an unconscious effort to keep your alertness level elevated, Baenninger said.\n\n"I'm a professor. All professors are used to having students yawn at them," Baenninger said. But the yawns are an attempt to stay awake, rather than an affront, he said.\n\nA few notions about why we yawn have been debunked: "Because breathing takes in oxygen and removes carbon dioxide, theories in the past about why we yawn centered on the assumption that it was a reflex in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels," writes Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, an associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.\n\n"This theory lost favor
292528
Yawns usually occur because you have some lack of oxygen, usually when you are growing sleeping and not breathing properly. When a person yawms next to you, you usually stop breathing yourself, thus triggering a "contagious yawn." Need to prove this false? Next time you see someone yawn, be concious of it and make yourself take a deep breath. You wont get that contagious yawn!
673477
Laffin...I am below average....and I have no idea about the sneezing/yawning....except that I do yawn alot most mornings....Lack of sleep?...Boredom?.....or just mere sugestion?....\n:)
273757
Seeing someone yawn, hearing them yawn, or even hearing the word "yawn" triggers a reaction in our brain. Yawn contagion is largely unconscious. Wherever it might affect the brain, it bypasses the known brain circuitry for consciously analyzing and mimicking other people’s actions.\n\nThis circuitry is called the “mirror-neuron system,” because it contains a special type of brain cells, or neurons, that become active both when their owner does something, and when he or she senses someone else doing the same thing. \n\nSo basically, it's an unconscious thing that the brain does, in most cases.
977252
From Wikipedia:\n\n"A previous long-standing hypothesis is that yawning is caused by an excess of carbon dioxide and lack of oxygen in the blood. The brain stem detects this and triggers the yawn reflex. The mouth stretches wide and the lungs inhale deeply, bringing oxygen into the lungs and hence to the bloodstream. It is almost certain, however, that this hypothesis is not correct. One study has documented that this effect does not exist."\n\nGoes on to newer, updated theories.\n\nAlso:\n\n"The reasons for this are unclear; however, recent research suggests that yawning might be a herd instinct. Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack during a full moon."\n\nGoes on to give other reasons for contagion. <Yawn!> Enough!
604697
lolol...yawns are contagious..u just made me yawn reading ur question...brat!!!
486726
its not very difficult. Sometimes if i jaz feel like it i sneeze with my mouth close. Then all of the things inside my nose flies away. And also i can sneeze with my eyes open. \nIt is more dificult to not yawn if you see someone yawn in front of you.
414199
Yawning, like laughter, can be infectious. As to why this should be, there is little hard evidence, although yawning may be an arousal response that arose early in evolution and whose aim is to improve oxygenation of brain tissue and increase alertness, with a view to enhanced survival. In social groupings, the sight of one member yawning might act as a signal to cause other members to yawn - in some way the yawn is a warning that attention is slipping and the group may be at risk…\n\nResearch into the physiology and pathology of yawning appears to be quite limited. However, I have come across a couple of useful references. The first gives a general description of what happens when we yawn:\n\n"Yawning is a response to a wide variety of stimuli, including sleepiness and an awakening from sleep, hunger, boredom, nervousness, and intracranial disease. It is infectious, occurs more frequently in the newborn, and is likely to be more vigorous (especially the accompanying stretch) in early morning than late at night."\n\n"A yawn consists of an expansion of the chest, descent of the diaphragm and larynx, elevation of the ala nasi and soft palate, downward and backward movement of the tongue, abduction of the vocal cords, wide opening of the mouth, contraction of the tensor veli palatini muscle, closing of the eyes, lacrimation, pulling the head backwards, stretching of the upper arms sideward and the lower arms upward, and, less frequently, stretching of the legs. Vasoconstriction in the digits and cardiac acceleration have also been found to accompany the yawn. The whole act occupies 5 to 10 seconds, most of which time is spent in the inspiratory phase."\n\n"Although yawning certainly is an effective way of fully expanding the lungs and increasing the venous return to the heart, its psychic implications are also of great interest. The author finds that merely writing this is a potent stimulus towards yawning, and perhaps the reader is similarly stimulated." (Fenn and Rahn 1964)\n\nA good review of yawning is provided by Askenasy (1989), and the points that follow are derived from this source. Apparently, yawning movements have been observed in fetuses as early as the 15th week after conception, and continue to occur sporadically throughout the remainder of pregnancy. The newborn baby yawns a few minutes after birth. The frequency of yawning gradually diminishes as the baby matures\n\n\nSeveral causes of yawning are discussed in the review:\n\n psychological - this includes boredom, drowsiness, fatigue, separation, imitation, and autosuggestion \n\n hormonal - ACTH and MSH \n\n neurological - various brain pathologies including coma, encephalitis, hypoxia, and neoplasms \n\n psychiatric - for example schizophrenia, psychosis, depression and withdrawal \n\n general pathologies - ear disorders, gastric and biliary disorders, and motion sickness \n\n drug overdose - for example naloxone, valproate, imipramine, clomipramine, seratonin, and pentobarbital \n\n drug withdrawal - from heroin, morphine, lefetamine, methadone, and pentazocin.
775112
It's a sympathetic reaction that makes them contagious.  A yawn happens when your body is not receiving enough oxygen.  You yawn when someone else yawns because of this sympathetic reaction.  Mythbusters did an experiment on this topic on one of their shows.
347438
It's a subconscious thing.  When a person is yawning, their body is sensing that it is not getting enough oxygen.  Something in our subconscious sets off, and causes us to yawn when we see someone else do it.