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Science

Can You Make It Through This Full Video Without Yawning?

Feb. 21, 2013 7:16am Liz Klimas

It has often been said that yawning is contagious. So, we challenge you to watch this slightly more than 1-minute video of constant yawning to see if you can get through without opening wide yourself:

Did you make it?

We’ve reported in the past about the scientific work being conducted to figure out the purpose of yawning — one idea is that it might help cool the brain or another is that it could provide a rush of oxygen.

As for the seemingly contagious nature of yawning, a study published in 2011 in the journal PLoS One found that some sort of social bonding with the person yawning impacted whether it would be contagious or not. People were most likely to yawn if they saw another person doing so if that person was a relative, friend or acquaintance — in that order.

“Strangers and acquaintances showed a longer delay in the yawn response (latency) compared to friends and kin,” the study authors stated. “This outcome suggests that the neuronal activation magnitude related to yawn contagion can differ as a function of subject familiarity. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals and not by other variables, such as gender and nationality.”

The film by Daniel Mercadante, composed of yawn footage he found around the Web, was posted a few days ago and featured as a Vimeo staff pick.

If you liked Mercadante’s work with Yawn, you might also enjoy what he did with Laughs!:

Volkswagen liked the idea so much they commissioned the artist to do something similar for their commercial:

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

(H/T: io9)

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Comments (17)

Thedadde
Posted on February 22, 2013 at 12:41pm
But a yawn usually does go thru me. Some said it is related to your level of sympathetics. My palms sweat and I get the kitchen towel when watching things like Cliffhanger, etc. My knees feel it when my grandsons jump off the porch. I always say, it hurts me more than it does them. I can see/feel it coming… wierd. Like me.

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Thedadde
Posted on February 22, 2013 at 12:24pm
My daughterl-in-law was hiccupping these huge hiccups for several minutes one night. I went into her room and held out a $20 bill and told her I would give it to her if she could hiccup ONE more time. She never did.
Here’s her facebook post: I’ve been hiccuping for 10 minutes straight. Rick just offered me a $20 if I could do it one more time, and I couldn’t even do it again. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaang it. lol

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Jelly_Belly
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 11:37pm
It’s all Obama’s fault!

(I think it’s tradition now for someone to blame him for something on stories unrelated to politics. I’m just carrying the torch here.)

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LIBERALSARESLACKERS
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:57pm
JFC, the Blaze has nothing else to report? Glenn, you have gone to ****, you whining little whimp.

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bonesiii
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:18pm
I made it!

The trick is to keep the cheek muscles “pinched” but relaxed and remember to breathe normally.

I couldn’t help but start laughing, though, at the two cats simultaneously yawning. Cats.

And I had no idea unborn babies yawn. Something new every day…

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Balpit
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 5:45pm
OK, what is it that’s supposed to make the viewer yawn:
the sight of people yawning, or waiting for the video to finally stop buffering?

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- mr_ness
  Posted on February 21, 2013 at 6:03pm
  a highly scientific combo of the two
  
  Report this comment
EduardoJRivera
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 12:56pm
The yawning video made me laugh and the laughing video made me yawn. There’s a study in which we can spend some of our tax dollars

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Idaho2aa
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 11:35am
The yawning one was easy. I didn’t last 10 seconds in the giggle one.

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AUsername
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:41am
its hard for me not to yawn in a Bengazi vid cause its sooo boring. hence i call it BenYawnzi.

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Margaret
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 10:33am
I made it through the ‘yawn’ one but not the ‘giggle’ clips!
Unbridled joy – wow, if someone could just bottle that this wourld would be a much better place.
Thoughts on yawning – When I can’t sleep, and I have chronic pain so that’s pretty often, I force myself to yawn – a lot. It seems to relax me and pretty soon I’ve nodded off. Give it a try.

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Barneyfyfe22
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 9:44am
I made it through the yawn but could not make it through the laugh! bwahahahahahahahahahah

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orion1958
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 9:36am
I made it all the way it was easy. to watch and not yawn. It was funny to see others yawn.

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KoolAidDrinker
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:29am
Zzzzzzzz!

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ms4kidz
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 8:21am
I made it, but I had to concentrate.

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huey6367
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:51am
Yeah, I made it. The sonogram of the baby in the womb yawning was pretty cool. Now I have to get back to work so I can keep the free market working.

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NoMoMrNiceGuy
Posted on February 21, 2013 at 7:34am
Alrighty then

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