ABSTRACT
Understanding others If you see someone yawning do you yawn too? Most people probably do to some extent. Some behavior, such as laughing and yawning, is socially contagious. But can any wider significance be attached to such findings? One study of contagious yawning in chimpanzees speculates that ‘contagious yawning in chimpanzees provides further evidence that these apes possess advanced self-awareness and empathic abilities’ (Anderson, Myowa-Yamakoshi, & Matsuzawa, 2004). Another study, this time on humans, administered tests requiring reasoning about the mental states of other people (e.g. beliefs, knowledge) as well as measuring yawn contagion, and concluded that ‘contagious yawning may be associated with empathic aspects of mental state attribution’ (Platek, Critton, Myers, & Gallup, 2003). Of course, there is unlikely to be anything special about yawning itself. There might be a general tendency to simulate the behavior of others on ourselves (internally in our minds and brains) even if we do not overtly reproduce it (as observable behavior on our bodies). Thus, we may understand others by creating a similar response in our brain to that found in the other person’s brain. Contagious yawning, under this account, is one extreme example of this more general and, normally, more subtle tendency. This chapter will attempt to unpick these claims and place them alongside traditional concepts in social and cognitive psychology, such as empathy and theory of mind. The chapter will also consider how these processes may be disrupted after brain injury and in people with autism.
