Yawning innoculation?
May 29, 2010 4:20 AM Subscribe
I am in India at the moment. When I yawn, nobody else does.
This seems odd. Normally yawning triggers yawning in other people. What's going on?
On a side node, I can't remember seeing anyone yawn here - confirmation bias?
This seems odd. Normally yawning triggers yawning in other people. What's going on?
On a side node, I can't remember seeing anyone yawn here - confirmation bias?
Are you traveling? Just some crazy speculation (because I can't resist): Normally when I end up in the group yawn thing, it's because I'm already tired... as in, most people feeling tired at the same part of the day. If you're not following the sleep/work/personal habits of the people around you, then the time when you feel sleepy is probably different from everyone else. So, they're not yawning because they're not drowsy when you are.
posted by anaelith at 4:48 AM on May 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by anaelith at 4:48 AM on May 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
Just another datapoint to say that people in India yawn, and yes, this yawning is often triggered by other people yawning. So yeah, confirmation bias, exacerbated by being jetlagged maybe?
posted by peacheater at 5:09 AM on May 29, 2010
posted by peacheater at 5:09 AM on May 29, 2010
I've heard--and this is entirely anecdotal, maybe someone else can confirm/deny--that we are more likely to catch yawns from people that we are comfortable with. Are you a foreigner? Maybe they have a naturally defensive attitude toward you.
posted by Suciu at 5:14 AM on May 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by Suciu at 5:14 AM on May 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
According to Mythbusters, other people yawning raised the chance a person would yawn in an experiment from 25% to 29%. That's a pretty small increase, and that was only after two experiments where they couldn't trigger yawning at all.
They call it 'confirmed' but with such a small increase their experiment didn't really convince me.
posted by Mike1024 at 5:40 AM on May 29, 2010
They call it 'confirmed' but with such a small increase their experiment didn't really convince me.
posted by Mike1024 at 5:40 AM on May 29, 2010
The other posters are just trying to be nice. The reality is, they are stifling their yawns because it is incredibly disrespectful to yawn in public in India. You are being extremely rude with your innocent little experiments. Please, cut it out.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:45 AM on May 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:45 AM on May 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
Couldn't really google anything up concerning how extremely rude it is to yawn in India. Did find one mention on Wikipedia that it's discourteous and you're expected to cover your mouth. For what it's worth (given if and how many the users are Indian), there's a bunch of questions about yawning, including a few about yawns being contagious on Yahoo Answers! India.
posted by Atreides at 6:54 AM on May 29, 2010
posted by Atreides at 6:54 AM on May 29, 2010
I am yawning reading this. Maybe the contagion is to the idea. I suspect it is being supressed out of some kind of inter-cultural awkwardness.
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:35 AM on May 29, 2010
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:35 AM on May 29, 2010
In Tanzania yawning is seen as a indicator of being hungry, not of being sleepy and in my experience it is not contagious there. Perhaps India also has a different construction.
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:06 AM on May 29, 2010
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:06 AM on May 29, 2010
I can't imagine this is anything other than confirmation bias. I've heard that contagious yawning is very primal human behaviour; a yawn meant that it was safe to go to sleep when we lived in the dangerous wilderness.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:08 PM on May 29, 2010
posted by yellowbinder at 12:08 PM on May 29, 2010
Response by poster: You are being extremely rude with your innocent little experiments. Please, cut it out.
Wow.
Not quite sure how to respond to this. I was yawning because I was tired. I can't stop a yawn, it would still mean a yawn, just with a funny face to try and cover it up.
There are no "experiments" going on either.
posted by devnull at 1:57 PM on May 30, 2010
Wow.
Not quite sure how to respond to this. I was yawning because I was tired. I can't stop a yawn, it would still mean a yawn, just with a funny face to try and cover it up.
There are no "experiments" going on either.
posted by devnull at 1:57 PM on May 30, 2010
Christ, it was a joke. The idea that people in India don't yawn because it's considered rude? How ridiculous would that be? A billion people all stifling yawns throughout their busy days? On the crazy-scale, that's about as crazy as the idea that a billion people on the planet somehow don't yawn ("On a side node, I can't remember seeing anyone yawn here"), as if they were so radically different than we non-Indians to lack this part of human—hell—animal behavior.
So to answer both questions: yes, people in India yawn. If you're not witnessing it firsthand it's far more likely for one of the reasons listed above than because people in India just don't yawn, which would be silly.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:05 PM on May 31, 2010
So to answer both questions: yes, people in India yawn. If you're not witnessing it firsthand it's far more likely for one of the reasons listed above than because people in India just don't yawn, which would be silly.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:05 PM on May 31, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
well, yeah. I just yawned. Granted, the dog didn't join in, but still..
posted by Gyan at 4:30 AM on May 29, 2010 [4 favorites]