Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.

The ability to share others' emotions, or empathy, is crucial for complex social interactions. Clinical, psychological, and neurobiological clues suggest a link between yawn contagion and empathy in humans (Homo sapiens). However, no behavioral evidence has been provided so far. We tested the e...

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Autores principales: Ivan Norscia, Elisabetta Palagi
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/72c2284991ae4644a84de030ce9dbdf1
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:72c2284991ae4644a84de030ce9dbdf12021-11-18T07:32:49ZYawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0028472https://doaj.org/article/72c2284991ae4644a84de030ce9dbdf12011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/22163307/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The ability to share others' emotions, or empathy, is crucial for complex social interactions. Clinical, psychological, and neurobiological clues suggest a link between yawn contagion and empathy in humans (Homo sapiens). However, no behavioral evidence has been provided so far. We tested the effect of different variables (e.g., country of origin, sex, yawn characteristics) on yawn contagion by running mixed models applied to observational data collected over 1 year on adult (>16 years old) human subjects. Only social bonding predicted the occurrence, frequency, and latency of yawn contagion. As with other measures of empathy, the rate of contagion was greatest in response to kin, then friends, then acquaintances, and lastly strangers. Related individuals (r≥0.25) showed the greatest contagion, in terms of both occurrence of yawning and frequency of yawns. Strangers and acquaintances showed a longer delay in the yawn response (latency) compared to friends and kin. This outcome suggests that the neuronal activation magnitude related to yawn contagion can differ as a function of subject familiarity. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals and not by other variables, such as gender and nationality.Ivan NorsciaElisabetta PalagiPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 12, p e28472 (2011)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Ivan Norscia
Elisabetta Palagi
Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
description The ability to share others' emotions, or empathy, is crucial for complex social interactions. Clinical, psychological, and neurobiological clues suggest a link between yawn contagion and empathy in humans (Homo sapiens). However, no behavioral evidence has been provided so far. We tested the effect of different variables (e.g., country of origin, sex, yawn characteristics) on yawn contagion by running mixed models applied to observational data collected over 1 year on adult (>16 years old) human subjects. Only social bonding predicted the occurrence, frequency, and latency of yawn contagion. As with other measures of empathy, the rate of contagion was greatest in response to kin, then friends, then acquaintances, and lastly strangers. Related individuals (r≥0.25) showed the greatest contagion, in terms of both occurrence of yawning and frequency of yawns. Strangers and acquaintances showed a longer delay in the yawn response (latency) compared to friends and kin. This outcome suggests that the neuronal activation magnitude related to yawn contagion can differ as a function of subject familiarity. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals and not by other variables, such as gender and nationality.
format article
author Ivan Norscia
Elisabetta Palagi
author_facet Ivan Norscia
Elisabetta Palagi
author_sort Ivan Norscia
title Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
title_short Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
title_full Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
title_fullStr Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
title_full_unstemmed Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens.
title_sort yawn contagion and empathy in homo sapiens.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2011
url https://doaj.org/article/72c2284991ae4644a84de030ce9dbdf1
work_keys_str_mv AT ivannorscia yawncontagionandempathyinhomosapiens
AT elisabettapalagi yawncontagionandempathyinhomosapiens
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