Yawning Is More Contagious in Pregnant Than Nulliparous Women

Naturalistic and Experimental Evidence

Bibliographic Data

ID5409595
AuthorsIvan Norscia (0000-0002-1618-7717, University of Turin, corresponding author), Lucia Agostini (0000-0002-5670-0554, University of Turin), Alessia Moroni (0000-0003-3780-2931, University of Turin), Marta Caselli (0000-0001-8674-8236, University of Turin), Margherita Micheletti-Cremasco (University of Turin), Concetta Vardé (APR (Italy)), Elisabetta Palagi (0000-0002-2038-4596, University of Pisa)
Year2021
Volume32
Issue2
Pages301-325
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Nature (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-6767 • E-ISSN: 1936-4776
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12110-021-09404-w
PMID34255275
OpenAlexW3179664560
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited104

Contrary to spontaneous yawning, which is widespread in vertebrates and probably evolutionary ancient, contagious yawning-yawning triggered by others' yawns-is considered an evolutionarily recent phenomenon, found in species characterized by complex sociality. Whether the social asymmetry observed in the occurrence of contagious yawning is related to social and emotional attachment and may therefore reflect emotional contagion is a subject of debate. In this study we assessed whether yawn contagion was enhanced in pregnant women, a cohort of subjects who develop prenatal emotional attachment in preparation for parental care, via hormonal and neurobiological changes. We predicted that if yawn contagion underlies social and emotional attachment, pregnant women would be more likely to contagiously yawn than nonpregnant, nulliparous women of reproductive age. We gathered data in two different settings. In the experimental setting, 49 women were exposed to video stimuli of newborns either yawning or moving their mouth (control) and we video-recorded the women during repeated trials to measure their yawning response. In the naturalistic setting, 131 women were observed in a social environment and their yawning response was recorded. We tested the factors influencing the yawning response, including the reproductive status (pregnant vs. not pregnant). In both settings, yawn contagion occurred significantly more in pregnant than nonpregnant women. By showing that pregnant women were most likely to respond to others' yawns, our results support the hypothesis that the social variation observed in yawn contagion may be influenced by emotional attachment and that yawning in highly social species might have been coopted for emotional contagion during evolution

Developmental psychology · Emotional contagion · Psychiatry · Clinical Psychology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Medicine · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology · Social Psychology · Behavioral Neuroscience

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