Yawning is almost always on, with the exception of psychopaths

Psychopaths are not infected by the yawning of others
Everyone knows that yawning can be contagious. Whether at school, in the office or at a party, if someone yawns gleefully, we can hardly suppress their own yawning. Only in psychopaths, this effect does not seem to work. This is confirmed by a study by Baylor University, which was published in the journal "Journal Personality and Individual Differences". Thus, people with psychopathic features lack the empathy responsible for contagious yawning.

Yawning infects only empathic people
Whether because of tiredness or boredom - Yawning people meet us everywhere. Researchers have long been concerned with the phenomenon of contagious yawning and have developed different theories. However, the experts agree that yawning is not only contagious to humans but also to chimpanzees and dogs. Even the sound of yawning evokes the need to yawn even if we have enough empathy. Anyone who is very empathetic and can sympathize well with the feelings of the other, can be easily infected by the yawning of his fellow man, which is due to the bond between the conspecifics and the sense of belonging of a group.

Yawning is contagious to most people, but not to psychopaths. (Image: Piotr Marcinski / fotolia.com)

The emotional closeness that we feel towards a person plays an important role. Therefore, the yawning of people close to us is much more contagious than strangers. We feel sympathy, we yawn with.

Psychopaths are immune to contagious yawning
An exception, however, are psychopaths. Because people with psychopathic properties are much less likely to be infected by the yawning of their fellow human beings as empathic persons, as a study of Baylor University shows.

"They yawn with you, even if you do not really need it," said senior scientist Brian Rundle in a statement from the university. We all know and wonder why. I thought, if it's true that yawning is due to empathy, I bet that psychopaths yawn much less. So I tested it. "

Rundle and his team studied 135 students for anti-social character traits, such as cold-heartedness, fearless domination, and self-centered impulsivity as the first step in their study. According to the researchers, psychopathy manifests itself through an antisocial lifestyle. Those affected are often selfish, manipulative, impulsive, fearless and domineering. Above all, psychopaths lack empathy.

In the next step, the study participants were shown video clips with various facial movements, such as a laughing, a neutral and a yawning face. The researchers found that the less empathetic a person was, the less likely she was to be infected by yawning.

"If you yawn and someone else does not, that does not mean that the other person is a psychopath. Many people do not yawn with strangers, "says Rundle. Psychopathy is understood in forensic psychology and psychiatry as a severe form of dissocial / antisocial personality disorder. Not everyone who has such an investment structure must inevitably become a mass murderer. (Ag)