9 Fascinating Facts About Yawning

Everyday behavior is fascinating. Why are people judged negatively for walking faster or slower than the pedestrians around them? Why is creativity viewed as sexier than intelligence? Why do dads joke about harming boys with a romantic interest in their daughter (with an instinctive need to mention guns)? Why do we think that we are more open-minded than reality? Why is gossip viewed as a vice even though these conversations offer unwritten knowledge about how to function in one’s neighborhood and workplace?

Supermassive black hole winds. Sewer systems in Ancient Rome. Using nanotechnology to build batteries. Much of science skips over what might be useful for functioning in day-to-day life. Take for instance, yawning. Just reading the word yawning might be sufficient to hijack the body — as you slowly open your jaws, squint the eyes, and take a deep breath before a quick exhale. Yawning seems too commonplace for serious scientific scrutiny.

No matter how beautiful you are. No matter how well you dress. No matter how many friends you have. Nobody looks cool when they yawn. What is cool is the presence of scientists who have devoted years to understand this under appreciated human behavior.

Here are 9 awesome scientific discoveries about yawning

1. You probably already know that observing someone yawn is contagious. What you don’t know is that yawns are equally contagious if the person happens to be viewed upside down, sideways, or standing upright. Our brains do not care about the spatial coordinates of another person’s mouth—yawning unleashes yawning.
2. Even if someone is blind, merely hearing the sigh-like sound of a yawn is sufficient to trigger their own yawn.
3. Contagious yawns have been observed in children as young as 2 years old. It is unclear why, but there is a massive uptick in contagious yawns when children reach the age of 4.
4. Human beings are not special. Yawning has been found in other animals such as pigs, monkeys, crocodiles, snakes, and even certain fish.
5. The average length of a yawn in humans is approximately six seconds. This is universal across cultures.
6. There are no half-yawns. You go full-throttle or you are doing something else.
7. You cannot suppress a yawn with clenched teeth. Go ahead and test this. When you feel the urge to yawn, do your best to inhale normally while keeping the teeth locked down. It feels horrible. Part of the mechanism of yawning is the opening of the jaws.
8. Yawning feels awesome. When asked by scientists, people rated yawning 8.5 on a 10-point scale (from bad to good). Bonus fun fact: the facial expression made during yawning is similar to how you appear during an orgasm. Make love in front of a mirror with mirrored ceilings and see for yourself. Of note, this experiment is the diametrical opposite of an aphrodisiac.
9. Kids and adults with autism are immune to the effects of observing someone else yawn. The contagiousness is not there. This yawning effect dovetails with other social deficits.

Science offers a portal into understanding ordinary, peculiar, and extraordinary acts. Let us appreciate everything that makes us human. Here’s hoping that more scientists, and citizen scientists, grab the mantle to conduct humble experiments on everyday behaviors to discover new knowledge and pass it on.

***read The Guardian article about rage rooms — the cultural trend that offers the opposite of their promise***

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a public speaker, psychologist, professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University. His new book is The upside of your dark side: Why being your whole self — not just your “good” self — drives success and fulfillment. For free articles, go to: toddkashdan.com