Scientists have discovered: yawning is contagious
The question "Do you love me?", Which is very common among spouses, has always been considered one of the stupidest. And belonged to the category of rhetorical. After all, "No", as a rule, no one answered. And it was incredibly difficult to check how sincerely “Yes!” Sounded - long observations were required. But it turns out that there is a very simple way that allows spouses or partners to measure the depth of romantic feelings for each other. It only takes a few minutes. It was discovered by Italian researchers Ivan Norsia, Elisa Demuru and Elizabeth Palagi (Ivan Norscia, Elisa Demuru, Elisabetta Palagi) from the University of Pisa (Pisa University in Italy). They recently reported on the experiments leading up to the discovery in a specialized scientific journal (Royal Society Open Science).
Scientists have studied yawning - specifically how one person's yawn is transmitted to another. Indeed, from numerous tales it follows that the process seems to be contagious. Supposedly, if someone yawned, after a while those around them will start yawning - one or two people for sure. As if infected.
From 2010 to 2015, Italians observed different groups of people in restaurants, offices, and waiting rooms. And they measured the time after which someone would respond with a yawn to a yawn within a radius of three meters from the "initiator".
It turned out that the phenomenon exists. Yawning is contagious indeed. Within three minutes after someone yawned in 90 cases out of 100, there was a person yawning as if in response. At the same time, women "responded" as a rule faster than men. There were no other obvious features - for example, the relationship of response to age, height, weight or health status - was identified.
Subsequent experiments have demonstrated that the rate of transmission of "infection" varies mainly with how closely the yawning responder - that is, the "infected" one - knows the person who yawned before him. The closer the "initiator" is, the faster the response.
Yawning is especially contagious within a 3 meter radius of the yawning person.
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Naturally, the most "contagious" were people who were married or simply in intimate relationships. At the same time, those subjects who, as the scientists later clarified, experienced sincere feelings of love for the primary sources of yawns, returned yawns most quickly. The researchers even compiled a kind of table, based on the statistics collected in the experiments.
So, a reciprocal yawn, received within 30 seconds, is an indicator of the partner's very strong feelings. Within a minute - just strong, two minutes - moderate, three - cool.
If your lover or beloved did not yawn for three minutes after you, or did not yawn at all, then this, alas, may indicate serious problems in the relationship. Although it is better to refrain from hasty conclusions even in this case. And you can repeat the test several times, waiting for the right moments.
Likewise, do not immediately accuse a spouse or spouse of treason if he or she suddenly quickly responded with a yawn to a yawn from some sweet stranger or stranger. There are exceptions that fall outside the statistical framework. Although such a reaction may well signal that your partner or partner is ready, at least in their thoughts, as they say, they wag their tail.
BTW
Smiles are contagious too
Ivan Norcia, Eliza Demuru and Elizaveta Palagi have only made sure that yawning is selective and contagious. But the mechanism of transmission of the "infection" was not revealed. Or maybe he is akin to the one that makes you smile in response to a smile? Or, on the contrary, to accept a mournful expression on his face - like that of a mourning person next to him?
According to one of the hypotheses, "emotional contagion" is transmitted due to the fact that some people are more prone than others to the so-called unconscious imitation. Its range is very wide. Remember: you look at a man biting off a lemon, and you yourself begin to grimace. You squint when you watch someone try to thread a needle. Straining looking at an athlete lifting a barbell. You shake your head in concern, empathizing with your neighbor in trouble.
Marco Iacoboni, a neurophysiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that we literally read other people's feelings and emotions thanks to special nerve cells located in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. And in fact, we reproduce mental images born in another head. We reflect them, as scientists say, who call the nerve cells involved in the process of "reflection", mirror neurons.
And this is not just an analogy. Experiments have shown that, for example, in a freezing person and in the one who is watching him - "enters the position", identical pictures of activity appear in the brain, as if reflected in a mirror.
“In fact, mirror neurons plant the mind of another person in us,” says Jacoboni.
Scientists are wondering how infection with various emotions occurs. Sinning on mirror neurons.
The "mirror" located in the brain works at the subconscious level. And who knows if it does not form a “response” to both smiles and sadness? What if yawning too?
