Yawning is contagious..true or not?

(^0^)~*yawn* This was actually featured in Discovery Channel's Mythbusters. It was tagged PLAUSIBLE because 29% of the time, people will yawn when they see other people yawning. This is against 25% of the time people will yawn even without seeing others yawning. However, in my case, it's more than 29%. I yawn like 70-80% of the time whenever I see someone yawning. ~and 100% of the time when I'm at work. =p

..and I just yawned because of this topic. hihihi. Not only yawning. When somebody cleans their eyes it seems like everybody who sees it does the same. Have you noticed this too?

YES! it's contagious.. and it is due to the lack of oxygen.. when the person beside you is yawning, the person is taking up your portion of oxygen which results in a lack of oxygen in your brain and you will start finding yourself yawning away like what your friend just did.

It is true yawning is contagious. But only because there is a psycholoical reason behind it. We yawn because a lack of oxygen to the brain. Yawn causes us to suck in more oxygen thus relieving the diffiancy. So when we se someone else yawn the brain clues off that there is a lack of oxygen in the space thus causeing us to yawn. But it is just much more fun to say that yawning is contagious.

i feel like yawning just by reading this. for some strange reason it does seem quite contagious to me.. i yawn when i see someone yawn, when i see a picture of a yawn, when my cat yawns, when i read the word 'yawn'..sheesh..i feel shleepy already..[

well, i guess i have to say that it is contagious. looking at other people yawning would eventually makes me yawn. hard to explain but i think it's contagious..

maybe, psychologically we are influence by each others behavior when someones cries we get carried away, and so on.. and scientifically i think this is the explanation, remember that not all yawning is an implication of getting sleepy or tardy or bored, yawning is also our body's way of getting more oxygen to the lungs but opening our mouth and through the help of diaphragm muscles more air is filled when we yawn. so if you are in a room full of people and the air circulation is poor, our body is reacting through yawning so their you have it, it could be the room that is lacking oxygen, or the effect of seeing someone doing something and getting carried away by it.

That is totally true. Even if i'm not feeling sleepy, but if i see someone yawning i feel like yawning myself. And i heard somewhere that there's a medical explanation for such phenomena.

OMG, yes yes yes! Whenever I see people yawning, I feel like yawning too. I've been wondering about this since before but I can't find an explanation. I normally see people yawning at the same time, too.

Oh yes. Even reading this is making me feel like I want to yawn! LOL! It happens to me all the time too. I see someone yawn and then I follow suit.

Same here. I also feel like yawning whenever I see one. And it really frustrates me when I cannot yawn even though I really want to. Yawning is kinda addicting :D

that is correct, I also feel like when I saw someone yawning I also yawn, I even notice it in others.

yes. yawning is contagious. according to studies, there's 50% chance that a person will yawn by just reading about yawning.