It’s a bit embarrassing sometimes, but you probably yawn sometimes when you see someone else yawn. It’s useful if it happens the other way around, because then you know that the person was leering at you. Anyway, there appears to be a whole explanation behind this phenomenon!
Also read: Not enough sleep? This trick will make you feel completely rested!
Yawning when someone else yawns too
If one person starts yawning, ten others will follow suit. It seems a bit strange, but it turns out that it is all very normal. Yawning when someone else also yawns has to do with empathy and mirroring behavior. We’ll explain it to you.
What happens when you see someone else yawn is that the motor cortex in your brain is stimulated. And this motor cortex contains mirror neutrons. These neutrons are activated when you see another person doing something. The mirror neutrons send a signal to your muscles, which also make you yawn.
Famous vs. unknown
Yet you don’t just yawn with everyone. This has to do with some empathy. For example, if you see your mother or sister yawning, you almost immediately yawn with them. But if you see someone for the first time, your brain will be less likely to be activated to yawn. The incentives are therefore stronger with someone you know than with someone you have never seen.
Social
What this phenomenon also says about a person is the social level. If you yawn quickly when you see someone else doing so, you have a lot of empathy and your brain (at least in that area) is quickly stimulated. There are also people for whom it almost never happens. Interesting! Fun fact: talking or reading about yawning also makes you yawn faster. What was your yawn count?
