Is Yawning Infectious?
Yawning is infectious to the extent that other habits are. The desire to yawn which comes to us when we see some one else does so comes under the heading of suggestion. The power of suggestion is greater than many of us realize. We are great imitators of each other. When one of us is downhearted, we are apt to become happy and glad simply by being with other people who are happy and glad. If enough people one at a time tell a perfectly well man that he looks sick, he will actually feel ill, provided he does not suspect a game is being played on him. So a good actor carries his audience with him. He can make them laugh or cry almost at will, and if he yawns, his audience will begin yawning.
Often, however, there is no acting connected with the yawning of the first person. Then the yawn is caused because the person is not sending enough good air into the lungs for purifying the blood, and the yawn is only nature’s way of making us take an exceptionally deep breath of air in at one time. This lack of sufficient good air in the lungs may not be due to the poor breathing, but to the amount of bad air in the room. In such cases it is quite likely that other people in the room yawn when one of them starts it because they all begin to feel the need of more good air at about the same time.