Contagious yawning in chimps may depend on social groups
28 April 2011Most people are familiar with the story: if you see someone yawn, it makes you yawn. A twist on this can be found in a new The Thoughtful Animal ScienceBlog entry, though.
Scientists aren’t at all sure why this contagious yawning happens. In fact, the data’s insufficiently strong for everyone to agree that it does happen. But there is some evidence that “empathic yawning” does happen in five animals, all mammals: four primates (including humans) and domestic dogs.
For us, and for dogs, the evidence – such as it is – is that observing anyone else yawning can make us yawn.
But new studies show that for one of the empathic yawning primates – chimpanzees – they do so significantly more if it’s a member of their own social group that makes the triggering yawn. They yawn in response much less if the first yawn is from a chimp that belongs to another group.
There’s speculation that this might be because humans and dogs have evolved in ways that mean it’s an advantage for us to feel empathy for individuals that aren’t part of our group.
There’s some good discussion about the parts of the brain that are triggered in empathic responses. Check out the blog.
