Chimpanzees yawn when observing an android yawn

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-98639-z

50•PaulHoule•5mo ago

Comments

seanalltogether•5mo ago

And like a damn chimp I just yawned after reading this headline.

thevinchi•5mo ago

I came here to say the same damn thing.

Findecanor•5mo ago

Me too. I was already sleepy, so on the verge of yawning already though. Coincidence or did the headline trigger it?

airstrike•5mo ago

Sounds like we need to test if people yawn after imagining someone else yawning

froddd•5mo ago

I can confirm. Sample of one, mind.

kgwgk•5mo ago

Of course we do. What I wonder is if there is any (inverse) correlation with aphantasia.

thih9•5mo ago

Science is notoriously late to discover what pet owners have known for centuries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joROEZQz178

kgwgk•5mo ago

Which one is the « catoid » there?

dghughes•5mo ago

I did the same after imagining it. Plus I have a half eaten banana in front of me. My life is an illusion!

nomilk•5mo ago

Why are yawns contagious in the first place? (i.e. human to human)

4gotunameagain•5mo ago

Many different proposed causes listed in the wikipedia article.

JadeNB•5mo ago

Also a brief survey in the linked Scientific Reports article.

smokel•5mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn

Not mentioned in the Wikipedia article, but in a referenced article [2]: "Another puzzling phenomenon is that some male animals, men included, yawn in association with penile erection"

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3076713

willis936•5mo ago

Not an answer but an expansion on the question: yawns are contagious among mammals. If you watch your cat yawn you're more likely to yawn and vice versa.

safeimp•5mo ago

Not only mammals (hence, this post).

Read about it, mammals will yawn when other non-mammals yawn.

lupusreal•5mo ago

Well, the android is roughly mimicking a mammal. But more to that point, I've seen snakes yawn, and I then yawned. Reptiles generally seem to yawn and I'd bet they yawn when they see mammals yawn too.

dinkblam•5mo ago

> I've seen snakes yawn

if a see a snake (yawning or otherwise) i'll definitely not yawn.

puking, screaming or running would be more likely.

lupusreal•5mo ago

Aww, snakes are cute though. You should think about spending some time around some docile snakes to challenge your aversion. Even through a glass tank wall, so you can feel rationally safe.

e40•5mo ago

I always heard it was synchronization of sleep cycles.

dboreham•5mo ago

Guess: one of the emergent properties of LLM-like systems is mimicry.

brulard•5mo ago

I read that sociopaths are immune from this

david422•5mo ago

Mythbusters did an episode on this https://www.discovery.com/shows/mythbusters/episodes/is-yawn...

IIRC, it wasn't that contagious.

JR1427•5mo ago

> IIRC, it wasn't that contagious.

Or, restated, they confirmed it was contagious.

david422•5mo ago

No. Plausible, but statistically insignificant for a definitive conclusion. https://mythresults.com/episode28

blackoil•5mo ago

I remember yawn as a result of lack of oxygen and need for a deep breath. Maybe it was some reaction among animals where they breath even if not feeling lack of oxygen.

yard2010•5mo ago

I would say "mirror neurons".

Also, primates are naturally selected to act mutually. Whoever didn't do so lost the tribe and died.

That's just high me thinking though.

serial_dev•5mo ago

I was just reading the headline and started yawning.

dgfitz•5mo ago

I don’t think they’re contagious. When everybody is bored and tired in the same room, they yawn.

Occam’s razor.

SpectraLeper•5mo ago

This presentation from BAHFest has always stuck with me as the "real" explanation: https://youtu.be/yh0XUZjRhO8?si=q9WNbCkEeMC-fuPp

nadermx•5mo ago

This was glorious.

ninetyninenine•5mo ago

It even is contagious through text. I read your comment and then literally yawned.

evulhotdog•5mo ago

I yawned because I read this comment.

sva_•5mo ago

Those images of that android in the PDF is the stuff that nightmares are made off

tarbyqualia•5mo ago

I thought it looked unnervingly realistic. That is, if you ignore the weird mouth curvature.

meindnoch•5mo ago

And what if they observe an iOS yawn?

divan•5mo ago

They become liquid and transparent

theginger•5mo ago

They get locked into a caged ecosystem

JadeNB•5mo ago

I'm not sure why 'Android' got auto-capitalized, but it's about a robot simulating yawning, not a phone.

tomhow•5mo ago

I've fixed it. Our auto-capitalizing bot didn't know the word could also be an improper noun.

Jorge1o1•5mo ago

Monkey see, monkey do?

hoppp•5mo ago

I yawned from reading the title, so Im not surprised.

dghughes•5mo ago

I yawned after reading the title and imagining a chimp yawn at a robot.

nopelynopington•5mo ago

Used to play a game when we were kids where one of us would start faking a yawn - stretching, contorting our mouths between words, breathing in as if trying to fight a yawn, trying to make the other person yawn before they realise.

overstay8930•5mo ago

My cat yawns after watching me yawn, I assumed this was a universal thing.

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