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Elsa July 18, 2007 at 7:25 am

I think it is contagious, I don’t know if this is the exact word, but it always happens to me
even when I try hard to avoid it, if I see someone yawning or if I think about this I can’t stop. Even now you ‘ll have to see me, it is just 11.24 am and for me looks as if it is time to go to bed

Stephen May 31, 2007 at 9:23 am

I have been able to demonstrate that yawning is not necessarily a contagious activity (Provine, 1989, Platek, et al, 2003). In fact I find little correlation between yawning and contagion in classroom situations, especially. I rarely yawn when one of my students yawns. In fact, I believe that yawning is the individual’s physiological manifestation of the processing of conflict between two or more competing stimuli.
Stephen Rafe, Graduate Studies Adjunct Professor, Research Methods

Stephen May 31, 2007 at 9:23 am

I have been able to demonstrate that yawning is not necessarily a contagious activity (Provine, 1989, Platek, et al, 2003). In fact I find little correlation between yawning and contagion in classroom situations, especially. I rarely yawn when one of my students yawns. In fact, I believe that yawning is the individual’s physiological manifestation of the processing of conflict between two or more competing stimuli.
Stephen Rafe, Graduate Studies Adjunct Professor, Research Methods

michael edelman April 7, 2007 at 9:58 am

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_cells