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Catching a yawn ‘a family matter’

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BBC Online :

Contagious yawning may show the closeness of your relationships rather than your tiredness, say scientists.
The act of yawning gets more blood flowing around the brain. The fact that it is contagious has never been fully explained, but one theory suggests it is linked to empathy between people.
An Italian study in the journal PLoS One found people were more likely to yawn in response to a close relative rather than just a friend. The finding suggests contagious yawning may have evolved as a way of maintaining alertness within a group.
Some believe even animals such as dogs and chimpanzees have been found to be prone to it, and about half of all humans are thought to have this response. The supposed link between empathy and contagious yawning was strengthened by earlier studies in which children with autism, who tend to be less capable of empathy than other children, were found to be less likely to do it.
Our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals "
The University of Pisa researchers observed 109 men and women from a variety of nationalities in their day-to-day activities, and recorded instances of contagious yawning.