冷冰心 の 心情點滴

clipped from www.abc.net.au

Michael Kahn

People who identify better with others are more prone to contagious yawning, researchers say.

The researchers publish their results in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

In their study, children with autism, who can have trouble showing empathy, were least likely to ‘catch’ a yawn.

Scientists have long known that one yawn often leads others to follow suit but what triggers the phenomenon is not as clear, says Dr Atsushi Senju, a researcher at the University of London’s Birkbeck College, who worked on the study.

The team tested the reaction of children with and without autism when watching video clips of people yawning and then simply moving their mouths.

The researchers found the children with autism, a developmental condition that severely affects social interaction and communication including empathy, yawned less than other children during clips of people yawning

Both groups of children yawned the same amount when watching the video of people only moving their mouths