mass with psychopathologic traits are less affected by others ' yawns , a 2015 written report see .
Contagious oscitance has beenlinked toempathy levels in several study , thoughnot all researchsupports the connexion . However , new research in the journalPersonality and Individual Differencesfinds that people with psychopathic traits — specially a lack of empathy — are not as susceptible to capture a case of the yawn … at least among college students , the only group tested .
researcher from Baylor University in Texas sample to raise 135 scholar to yawn in reaction to someone else ’s yawning . Each of the player also completed a questionnaire regarding their personality trait , measuring psychopathologic characteristics like selfishness , tendency to be manipulative , impulsivity , and a lack of empathy . Then they sat at a computer and observe 10 - 2nd video clips of facial movements , including yawn . Electrodes were attach to their faces just under the lower eyelids , on their forehead , on the out corner of their centre , and on their fingertips to measure their movements in chemical reaction to the video recording .
Contagious yawn in a19th century etch . Image Credit : Wellcome Images viaWikimedia Commons//CC BY 4.0
The high the player rated on measures of stale - heartedness , the less likely they were to catch another person ’s yawn . Granted , hoi polloi are less potential to feel empathy with a alien they ’re watching in a video than with someone they jazz , and the sample distribution size was pretty small , so Baylor University probably is n’t full of a bunch of raging sociopath . And not yawning when others do it does n’t mean you should run off for a psych evaluation . " But what we found tell us there is a neurologic connexion — some lap — between psychopathy and contagious yawning , ” study author Brian Rundlesays .
