Seeing someone yawn can make you feel an urge to yawn yourself. Researchers call this contagious yawning. It has been studied with video and sound, and people differ in how readily they respond. You can yawn after seeing a stranger do it. You can also see a close friend yawn and feel no urge at all.
There is a difference between showing that a yawn can prompt another and knowing why you yawned in one particular moment. Both people may already be tired, or you may have noticed a yawn when you were about to yawn anyway. If someone yawns while you are speaking, ask about the practical issue only if there is one. A yawn by itself tells you little about their interest, their manners or how they feel about you.
- A seen or heard yawn can prompt an urge to yawn in some people.
- One yawn can have several plausible explanations.
- Experiments find differences between people and across circumstances.
- Yawning back is a poor way to judge empathy or closeness.
- If someone looks tired and there is a decision to make, ask whether they want a break.
eduKate Singapore · Mindset and character
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Chapters 6–10
Chapter 1 of 10
The moment one yawn seems to start another
You are sitting opposite a friend on the train. Your friend looks out the window and yawns. A moment later your own mouth starts to open. You had been listening to what your friend was saying and might have felt fully awake. The timing catches your attention because you can name something that happened just before the urge. If the same thing had happened a minute earlier, you may never have thought about the cause.
Researchers use contagious yawning to describe an increased chance of yawning after exposure to another yawn. The word contagious here refers to a behaviour that can be prompted by a cue. Some researchers use a controlled video or sound to give participants a similar cue. In a real conversation, you see everything else the person is doing and share a great many conditions with them. The experience can be familiar while any particular cause remains uncertain.
The urge and the visible yawn are different observations
Sometimes you feel the first part of a yawn and keep it small. Sometimes a yawn surprises you after you have already opened your mouth. If someone is counting only visible movements, they may record a different result from the answer you would give when asked whether you felt the urge. Researchers can distinguish what people do, what they report and whether they say they held the response back.
That distinction helps you read an everyday scene. A friend might never notice that you felt the urge while they were talking. They may notice only the one you covered with your hand. Neither person has full access to what the other experienced. When the effect is mild, you can let the moment pass without asking the yawn to explain the whole conversation.
A yawn can catch your attention even if you feel fine
You might notice a yawn during a film because the actor’s face fills the screen, or in a quiet room because it is the only movement. You do not need to know the person. In other situations the cue may pass unnoticed while you are reading, looking for your stop or following someone else’s words. What you attend to helps determine what you can report afterwards.
You may also notice your own response more because you were thinking about yawns. Once a friend says “I bet you’ll yawn too,” both of you may watch closely for one. That moment can be amusing. It gives you less information about your usual reactions because the situation now includes expectation, attention and a small performance for the other person.
Chapter 2 of 10
What researchers can separate in an experiment
Alex Bartholomew and Elizabeth Cirulli used a short video of yawning and measured how volunteers responded. Their study included 328 participants. Some yawned in response and others did not. In the subset who were tested again, responses showed a degree of stability across sessions. Many of the people who did not yawn also reported no urge to do so. This gave the researchers a way to discuss individual variation beyond counting who visibly opened their mouth.
The study also collected other measures, including questionnaires related to empathy and sleepiness. The factors examined explained relatively little of the variation. That matters when someone claims a yawn tells you a great deal about who you are. A relatively simple demonstration can establish that responses differ without settling why one person responds and another does not.
Hearing can be enough to create a cue
In a study of auditory contagious yawning, Stephen Arnott and colleagues examined responses to the sound of yawns. A listener may recognise a yawn even without seeing the person who made it. This gives researchers a way to examine a cue other than a face on a screen. It also helps make sense of an experience such as feeling the urge after a yawn on a voice call.
Think about how much information sound leaves out. You may hear a drawn-out breath that resembles a yawn, or someone on the call may tell you they were stretching. If you are trying to interpret the conversation, the sound alone offers a limited answer. If you are curious about a possible trigger, a recognisable yawn sound can be enough to make the question worth asking.
Why studies need a comparison
Imagine playing a three-minute video of yawns and recording how many people yawn. Some would have yawned during any quiet three-minute interval. A comparison condition helps you estimate how much difference the yawning cue made. The details matter. A video of moving faces and a blank screen offer different amounts of movement and interest, for example. How the study handles those differences shapes what it can show.
In ordinary life you cannot rerun the same moment without the other person’s yawn. You might remember the times when a pair of yawns happened close together and forget the many times someone yawned without a response. That makes the pattern feel cleaner than it may be. If you want to understand the research, ask what people saw or heard, what the comparison was and what counted as a response.
Chapter 3 of 10
Does yawning back tell you how much you care?
A widely shared idea says that responding to a yawn reveals empathy or a close bond. It is an appealing story because the behaviour is easy to see and the bond is hard to measure. Research has examined possible connections, and the results do not support treating an individual’s response as a personality test. A review by Jorg Massen and Andrew Gallup discussed problems with inferring empathy from contagious yawning, including the difficulty of ruling out other explanations.
A parent can listen attentively to their child and never yawn in response. A stranger who feels the urge after watching a video may know nothing about the person in it. These examples fit the practical difference between a bodily response and a choice about how to treat someone. If you want to know whether a friend is paying attention, there is better evidence in whether they follow what you said, remember the detail and respond to the question you actually asked.
Attention can make a social pattern look stronger
If you spend longer looking at a person you know, you may see more of their face and notice more of what they do. If you are in a familiar group, you may know when someone is likely to speak and look in their direction. These features can change the number of chances you have to detect a yawn. A difference in response between groups does not by itself say which feature of the situation caused the difference.
That is one reason to ask what a study actually measured about familiarity and attention. Some studies observe people in their usual settings. Others give everyone a standard cue. A result about who responded under those conditions can be interesting without providing a way to rank the people in your household. You can enjoy recognising a shared habit without turning it into a claim about a relationship.
Give a joke the right amount of weight
Two friends may laugh when they yawn one after another. The moment can become a small sign that they are comfortable enough to be unguarded around each other. That is an account of the exchange, based on everything else they know about it. It is a larger leap to say the second person’s yawn proves anything about their capacity to care.
If someone uses a supposed yawn test seriously, you can say “People react differently to that cue.” You can also change the subject to what they really wanted to know. Perhaps they were wondering whether a new friend felt at ease or whether the group was getting tired. Those questions can be answered with conversation and observation rather than an experiment made up on the spot.
Chapter 4 of 10
Why both people might already be ready to yawn
You and your friend may be at the end of the same long day. You could both be sitting through a quiet stretch of a journey or waiting for the same meeting to end. Those shared circumstances give you two reasons to pause before deciding what caused the second yawn. The first person’s yawn may have prompted it, or it may simply have made you notice the timing. More than one influence can be present.
Think of a meeting where three people yawn in the last few minutes. The meeting may be long and the participants may have had very different mornings. One person may respond to the first yawn, and another may have been waiting for a comfortable moment to let theirs out. The individual explanations may differ even when the group appears to do the same thing.
Notice what changed immediately before the yawn
A useful question is whether a particular person was looking at or listening to the yawn. If someone on the other side of a wall yawns while you are wearing headphones, the match in time may be a coincidence. If you saw the whole movement and felt an urge immediately, the cue is a plausible part of what happened. Either case describes the evidence you have rather than assigning certainty you cannot get from one event.
The same practice helps in group discussions. Instead of saying “Everyone is bored,” notice whether people have lost the thread, stopped answering or asked when the session ends. Those signals have different meanings and may be easier to discuss. If you need to know whether to continue, give people a clear choice about a break or a shorter next segment.
Tiredness and attention can both matter to a real decision
If you are studying with a friend late in the evening, the practical question may be whether both of you can still do the work you came to do. Try one question. If each person can explain an answer and wants to continue, a yawn may need no further discussion. If neither can follow the explanation or remember the previous step, choose what to finish and when to return.
An organiser can use the same logic during a session. A yawn in the front row does not tell them whether the whole room needs to stop. If several people are struggling to follow, invite a short break or check which part needs repeating. The goal is to find out what will help the people in the room, using more than one expression as evidence.
Chapter 5 of 10
What to do when someone yawns while you are speaking
You can keep speaking when the exchange is going well. A quick yawn followed by a thoughtful question is compatible with interest. If you are about to give directions, ask whether the person caught the important detail. If you are talking for a long time and have a flexible stopping point, offer to pause there. Match your response to the conversation you are having.
If someone yawns and says “Sorry,” you can answer “It’s fine” and continue. If they say they are struggling to stay awake, take the words as the stronger signal. Offer to talk later or ask what they need now. A direct account is more useful than an inference about how they feel from a movement that can have several causes.
At home and with friends
A teenager yawns as a parent asks about the school day. The parent can finish the question and give them time to answer. If the teenager replies that they are tired, they can agree on a time to talk. If the parent was asking about something time-sensitive, such as a form that needs a signature that evening, say which part cannot wait and save the rest for another moment.
With a friend, a yawn may come right as you reach a part of a story you care about. If you feel unsure whether to go on, ask “Shall I finish this now or tell you tomorrow?” You might discover that they are tired and want to hear the end, or that a later conversation suits both of you. The question leaves room for either answer without making them defend their expression.
At school and in a meeting
If you lead a group and notice yawns, think about what the group has been doing. A long stretch of listening may warrant a pause, a different activity or a clear checkpoint. Ask the class to explain one part back, or invite a question on the section you just finished. The response gives you information about comprehension that a visible yawn cannot give you by itself.
If you are the person who yawns, cover it if that is the usual courtesy in the setting and carry on. If you missed something while yawning or felt distracted, ask for the piece you need. “Could you repeat the deadline?” settles a practical gap. You can show you were listening by responding to the content of the discussion.
Chapter 6 of 10
Follow three everyday examples from cue to decision
Two people on a video call
Leon sees his colleague yawn and notices himself yawning soon afterwards. His first thought is that the call must be dull. The colleague then asks a precise question about the document and suggests a way to fix it. Leon can stay with the work. If he is personally ready for a break, he can ask for one without giving the yawn a meaning on the colleague’s behalf.
A few minutes later the colleague says they started work very early and would like to move the second topic to tomorrow. That is information Leon can use. They agree which point must be settled today. The first yawn was an observation. The request and the agreed deadline determine what happens next.
A sibling who never yawns back
Nora yawns in the kitchen and her brother carries on making tea. She has read that yawns are contagious and expects a response. Her brother may never have looked up, may have seen it without an urge or may have had something else on his mind. None of those possibilities gives Nora an account of how much he cares about her.
Later, Nora tells him about a difficult conversation at school and he listens closely. He asks whether she wants advice or just someone to hear the story. If Nora was curious about whether she could talk to him, that exchange gives her much clearer evidence than watching his face while she yawns.
A class at the end of the day
A teacher notices several yawns during the last part of a lesson. The class has been working quietly with a diagram. The teacher asks pairs to explain one arrow to each other. Several pairs find the right idea immediately and a few reveal the same misunderstanding. The teacher can spend the remaining time clarifying that relationship. The response shows what the class needs more precisely than a guess about general interest.
On another day, the same check might show that everyone needs a pause. A short reset may make sense if time and circumstances allow. It is the combination of the group’s task, the visible cues and what the students say that makes the decision workable.
Chapter 7 of 10
How to tell a good explanation from an attractive story
Contagious yawning is easy to demonstrate in a conversation because people can see the behaviour and compare the timing. The harder part is deciding why it happened. A story about social bonds sounds convincing if two close friends yawn together. The same story has less to say about a person who yawns after seeing a stranger on a screen. An explanation should account for both kinds of observation, or be clear about which one it addresses.
Separate the observations before choosing a cause. “I saw my friend yawn and then I yawned” is one observation. “My friend and I had both been awake for a long time” is another. “I often yawn after seeing videos of people yawning” gives you more examples. The observations support the idea that a cue can be involved. They leave room for other conditions and for a yawn you would have made anyway.
A brain explanation still needs to connect to the behaviour
You may hear that a particular brain system explains why yawns spread. To evaluate the claim, ask what the study measured and what changed. A study may show that a response is associated with a measure taken during a laboratory task. Explaining the effect in ordinary life takes additional work. How was the cue presented? Did the result depend on trying to hold back? What else could account for the variation?
That does not make a brain study irrelevant. It gives it a useful scale. An explanation can be interesting when it makes a narrower claim about an experimental result. Your own next yawn remains a small event with many possible contributors. You can recognise a plausible influence and continue with your day.
Test a claim using a different scene
Suppose someone says people yawn back only when they feel close to the other person. Picture a video showing a stranger yawning, then look at what happened in the video studies. Some viewers report or show a response. The claim needs to allow for that case. A more modest claim might be that familiarity can matter under some conditions. That leaves room for research on what people pay attention to and for experiments that use unfamiliar faces.
Try the same check for boredom. Someone yawns during a story and then asks you about a detail from the beginning. They might be tired and listening closely. Another person looks alert and cannot tell you what you just asked. The yawn and the interest are separate observations. If the goal is a good conversation, you can check interest more directly.
Chapter 8 of 10
Compare a shared cue with a shared timetable
Imagine two friends on a train at the end of the school day. Both see the lights of the same stations and both have been sitting quietly for ten minutes. One yawns and the second follows. If the second friend did not see or hear the first yawn, the shared conditions become more plausible explanations for the timing. If they were looking straight at their friend and felt the urge at once, the cue has a plausible role. You do not have to select just one cause to make sense of the exchange.
Now put the friends in separate places on a call. One hears the other yawn but cannot see their face. If a response follows, the sound may have been enough. If the sound is faint, or the listener is speaking at the same time, they may never notice it. Moving the same example into a different setting reveals which details would help you interpret it.
Ask whether the moment needs any action
In both scenes the friends can carry on if they want. If they were about to tackle a difficult problem or make a plan, they might decide to pause and check how they feel. “Do we have enough attention for one more question?” lets each answer for themselves. If the answer is yes, try the question. If they prefer to stop, agree on a point at which to return.
People sometimes treat a yawn as a request when it is simply visible. If your listener wants to stop, give them an easy way to say so. If you want to stop, ask directly. You can save both people the work of guessing what the other meant.
Chapter 9 of 10
A brief exercise in noticing what you can observe
Choose an ordinary moment from memory when one person yawned after another. Write down three things you could have seen or heard. You might remember the location, the order of the yawns and whether the second person was facing the first. In a separate line, write down what you inferred. “They were bored” and “the yawn made me do it” belong here. Ask which extra piece of information would have helped with the inference.
For a practical decision, choose a question you could have asked. “Did you catch the last direction?” tells you whether to repeat something. “Would you like a pause?” tells you whether to continue. You may realise that your curiosity was the only reason to ask. In that case the event can stay an interesting possibility without creating a job for anyone else.
Use the exercise without putting someone on display
Watching people for a response can change the mood. A friend who knows you are looking may decide to hide a yawn or exaggerate one as a joke. A student may feel put on the spot if a teacher asks why they yawned in front of the class. If you want to discuss the effect, explain it without requiring anyone to demonstrate their response.
You can use an imagined example to practise separating observation from interpretation. Compare a quiet film audience with a pair of friends on a loud platform. Which people could see the cue? Which could hear it? What else could be going on? The same reasoning works without turning an ordinary bodily reaction into a public score.
Chapter 10 of 10
Frequently asked questions
Can a video make me yawn?
Researchers have used videos of yawning as stimuli and observed responses in some participants. A video can provide the relevant sight without requiring the person to be present. Response varies, and a video can also find you at a time when you were already likely to yawn.
Can just hearing a yawn be enough?
Researchers have tested auditory cues and found evidence that yawning sounds can prompt a response. If you hear something ambiguous on a call, the sound may not tell you what the other person was doing. The narrower point is that a face is unnecessary for a recognisable yawn cue to be studied.
Why do I rarely yawn when other people do?
People differ in how readily they respond to a yawn cue, and experiments have found that many participants who did not yawn did not feel an urge. You may also be occupied with something else when a yawn happens. Your response to one cue is a poor guide to your personality or relationships.
Does it mean the other person is bored?
A person may yawn while engaged, tired or responding to a cue. Their words and actions give more direct information. If it matters whether they are following, ask a specific question about the conversation. If you need to make a decision about a break, ask that directly.
What if I keep yawning throughout the day?
A repeated pattern across the day is a different question from one yawn after seeing another. MedlinePlus advises contacting a healthcare provider for unexplained and excessive yawning. A description of when it happens and whether you are also very sleepy gives the provider more to go on than a guess about contagious yawning.
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