Psychopaths Don't 'Catch' Contagious Yawns

Yawns, just like happiness, can be contagious, and science has some factual evidence to back it up.

Yet new findings published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences show that some are less like likely to be affected by contagious yawns. Some who are less likely to experience certain emotions, like empathy, or who find it easy to manipulate others; some who are extremely selfish.

Researchers at Baylor University in Texas have found that people with psychopathic characteristics are less likely to catch a yawn from someone else as yawns are, in fact, associated with empathy and even bonding--typically traits that psychopathic people just don't have.

"You may yawn, even if you don't have to," Brian Rundle, lead researcher of the study, said in a statement. "We all know it and always wonder why. I thought, 'If it's true that yawning is related to empathy, I'll bet that psychopaths yawn a lot less.' So I put it to the test."

In this recent study, the researchers recruited 135 college students, requiring each to take a psychological test with questions that were aimed at determining their degree of self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance and cold-heartedness.

Then, they were shown 10-secnd video clips of varying facial movements, including yawns, laughs or a neutral face with 10 seconds of blank screen separating 20 video snippets of the expressions.

Findings revealed that less empathetic participants were less likely to "catch" yawns.

However, researchers caution that if you yawn and your friend doesn't, that this does not mean that he or she is a psychopath. It simply means that there may be some neurological connections between psychopathy and contagious yawning.

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