Chimpanzees yawn when observing an android yawn

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

42•PaulHoule•3d ago

Comments

seanalltogether•5h ago

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

thevinchi•5h ago

I came here to say the same damn thing.

Findecanor•1h ago

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

airstrike•4h ago

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

froddd•3h ago

I can confirm. Sample of one, mind.

kgwgk•2h ago

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

thih9•2h ago

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

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

kgwgk•1h ago

Which one is the « catoid » there?

dghughes•3m 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•5h ago

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

4gotunameagain•5h ago

Many different proposed causes listed in the wikipedia article.

JadeNB•3h ago

Also a brief survey in the linked Scientific Reports article.

smokel•2h 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•5h 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•2h ago

Not only mammals (hence, this post).

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

lupusreal•1h 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•7m 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.

e40•4h ago

I always heard it was synchronization of sleep cycles.

dboreham•2h ago

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

brulard•2h ago

I read that sociopaths are immune from this

david422•1h ago

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

IIRC, it wasn't that contagious.

JR1427•45m ago

> IIRC, it wasn't that contagious.

Or, restated, they confirmed it was contagious.

blackoil•1h 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•1h 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•53m ago

I was just reading the headline and started yawning.

dgfitz•31m ago

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

Occam’s razor.

SpectraLeper•19m ago

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

nadermx•8m ago

This was glorious.

ninetyninenine•12m ago

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

sva_•4h ago

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

tarbyqualia•3h ago

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

meindnoch•4h ago

And what if they observe an iOS yawn?

divan•3h ago

They become liquid and transparent

theginger•3h ago

They get locked into a caged ecosystem

JadeNB•3h ago

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

tomhow•1h ago

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

Jorge1o1•2h ago

Monkey see, monkey do?

hoppp•50m ago

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

dghughes•6m ago

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

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