Tired? You Will Be?

An American Study Explains Why You Yawn When Somebody Else Does!


It happens all the time: somebody starts yawning and then people around them start yawning in unison. But why does it happen? Psychologist Steven Platek of Philadelphia's Drexel University thinks that this so-called contagious yawning is more common amongst empathetic people - those who are able to put themselves in other peoples shoes.

To test this idea. Platek and his colleagues at the State University of New York asked volunteers to watch a video showing people yawning. More than 40 per cenr of the video viewers yawned in response to someone yawning on screen, and 60 per cent of the mimics did it more than once. Those yawners also scored highly on tests desighned to measure their empathy. According to Platek, these are the sort of people who yell "ouch" when someone else steps on a sharp object. The results may also explain why schizophrenics, who find it hard to empathise, rarely catch 'the yawns'.

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Click the link below to read the rest of the research that has been done


www.drexel.edu...



blackwidow

Interesting.
I always thought that it was one off those thing's left over from our days in caves.
When the leader or Alpha male yawned he was telling the rest of the tribe that it was time to sleep. That's why most off us still do it today.

that interesting. Thanks for sharing. I guess thats why I'm always yawning.

Originally posted by blackwidow666
According to Platek, these are the sort of people who yell "ouch" when someone else steps on a sharp object.

I always think of myself as emphatic, and I've had experiences that I've touched on on the board, so it doesn't surprise me that I nearly ALWAYS say "ouch" or "ow" when I see someone else do something painful, or sometimes even if I'm just expecting them to hurt, even though they don't, I can't stop myself saying ow, I find it hilarious sometimes.....but now I know why, THANK you Blackwidow

Thanks immensely.
What you posted here is far more powerful than you think.
Do some studying on psychopaths and realize how difficult these people can be to spot and yet know the damage they are capable of inflicting on you.
The ability to find emphatic people is very powerful.
Find them and make them a part of your life!
The others avoid them or only deal with them when you have to.

I did learn all about empathy when I was studying Psychology a few years ago, and also psychopath's as well.

But wouldnt have put yawning down to being a psychopath, but there you go. Ive worked with people who have this disability and they can be, difficult to work with sometime, can also tell when someone is psychotic as well (just a small bit anyway).

Doesnt mean that if you are very empathic you are a psycho though!

blackwidow

cool post there. is there any threads about our behaviour today and how it links back to our past?

Kurtcobainuk

Good point there, will see if I can find anything for you, but not going to be easy!


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I did look up on the EMPATHY though, just to double check I did have it right, and this is what an old Psychology text book said:

"Empathy: This term refers to our awareness of the emotional state of another person, and our ability to share the experience with them. In this latter sense, we vicariously experience the same emotions. It is common to share emotions with our children, so that we feel pride when they feel pride, we share their sadness and their loneliness. Having empathy with another is more than "feeling sorry" for them or "pleased for them", it is common sharing of the same pain, pleasure, anger etc.

When these emotions are painful, we are frequently motivated to act to relive them. The empathy-altruism theory, for example, explains human altruism in terms of the shared pain we have with somebody in need. We are thus seen as helping them to overcome our own empathic pain."


Hope that maybe be clearer for some!


blackwidow

Originally posted by THENEO
Do some studying on psychopaths and realize how difficult these people can be to spot and yet know the damage they are capable of inflicting on you.

lol i'm not a psychopath but i could still do far more damage than most of them could, being a psychopath doesn't mean they are particularly dangerous, unless free minds are dangerous, because they obviously don't have minds that are working with society so i say that psychopaths are helpful to us, they can help us to understand different ways of thinking, maybe the psychopaths are just very old souls which have created their own new reality because they have the ability, maybe thats why smart people are more insane, they are working towards becoming psychopaths and they don't even know it, maybe i'm talking out of my ass on a monday morning

Psychopath - or anti-social personality: (Psychology term)


Anti-social Personality:

"A personality disorder that is characterised by a lack of regard for the rights and feelings for others, an absence of shame following violation of moral codes and an inability to form emotional relationships or take responsibility for actions. Explanations of the anti-social personality (also sometimes referred to as the psychopathic personality) vary according to the psychological perspective adopted. Psychodynamic theorists tend to explain it through an absence of parental love during infancy. As a result of this, children fail to form a dasic thrust with others. They respond to such inadequacies by becoming emotionally detached, and thus show less awareness of others, which in turn leads to a poorly developed superego. Behaviourists suggest that this disorder may be aquired through the process of modelling and point to the fact that many parents of people with the anti-social personality also have theis disorder. More recently research has suggested a biological link with the evidence that the autonomic and central nervous systems of people with this disorder appear to act more slowly than normal. Their anti-social acts may then be interpreted as a continual search for excitement in an attempt to increase the activity of their nervous systems. A variety of different treatments is used for this disorder, but only a minority volunteer for or complete treatment programmes. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (where clients are guided towards thinking at a more abstract and higher level of moral functioning) and wilderness programmes (to develop individual and group commitment in a challenging environment) are two examples of treatments used."


Not everything is so black & white though!



blackwidow

Is that what everybody got out of this?

To me, I learned an easy way to tell if someone is a schizo or not...just yawn and see if they don't!!!

Well, it's better than that half-baked idea of a "sign of sleep going back to the caveman days" other researchers have put forth...

Who cares why it happens its still cool to walk into a crowded room and get everyone else tired

Perhaps this bit of knowledge would help citizens decide who they wish to vote for in political positions...Think about it for a minute:

Bush, as govenor of Texas, had more state-initiated executions of prisonors than any other govenor in the history of Texas; How many people have been executed as terrorists (as defined by the Patriot Act) since he's become President; Also, how many people have died due to takinig action based upon the lies he's spewed in order to get the military into Iraq & further surpress American freedoms & liberties?
Before becoming President, he's been in charge of *two* major corporations & have bankrupted them both; As President, now he's doing the same to the *entire nation*.
When in the National Guard, he's been known to go AWOL from his duties as a pilot; As President, he's frequently "absent" from his Office when his duty to the nation calls & he ignores the public that pays his salary.

Does this sound like an empathetic man to have in the Office of the most powerful nation on Earth?

It seems to me that, with this study, people can look at the past history of potential political candidates & find out if they've displayed empathy to their fellow human beings before campaigning for an Office. Do you realize what *other* implications this study could reveal if used on a more wide-ranging basis?

Originally posted by blackwidow666
An American Study Explains Why You Yawn When Somebody Else Does!


It happens all the time: somebody starts yawning and then people around them start yawning in unison. But why does it happen? Psychologist Steven Platek of Philadelphia's Drexel University thinks that this so-called contagious yawning is more common amongst empathetic people - those who are able to put themselves in other peoples shoes.

To test this idea. Platek and his colleagues at the State University of New York asked volunteers to watch a video showing people yawning. More than 40 per cenr of the video viewers yawned in response to someone yawning on screen, and 60 per cent of the mimics did it more than once. Those yawners also scored highly on tests desighned to measure their empathy. According to Platek, these are the sort of people who yell "ouch" when someone else steps on a sharp object. The results may also explain why schizophrenics, who find it hard to empathise, rarely catch 'the yawns'.

********************************************

Click the link below to read the rest of the research that has been done


www.drexel.edu...



blackwidow

YAAAAAWWWNNNN Its catching ya know i am actually dam tired now./

Maybe Bush was getting rid of psychopaths because they are a threat to society.

Originally posted by THENEO
Maybe Bush was getting rid of psychopaths because they are a threat to society.

Maybe true, maybe not...It's already a forgone conclusion with reams & reams of evidence that Bush is, at the very least, a liar anyway...

At any rate, I was only using Bush as an example of how you could apply these "indications of empathy" as an aid to determine who would make the best politicians for the *benefit* of the nation instead of guessing who's going to cause the least *detriment*.

This applies not only to yawning.

Have you ever noticed that when watching a film/tv lots of people copy the actions of the characters. When in a dentist lots of viewers also open their mouths and watch men watching someone else shaving they move their cheeks and chins as if they are shaving themselves. This also happens when watching sport the 'ouch' factor especially with more violent sports.