Contagious yawning, an involuntarily action induced by viewing or listening to others' yawns, has been demonstrated in human and several non‐human species. Yawning is a primitive and stereotyped motor action involving orofacial, laryngeal, pharyngeal, thoracic and abdominal muscles. As such, we will briefly summarise and elaborate on the relevant findings in these respects, and propose a comparative, multi-method and ecologically valid approach which can explain the multifaceted character of the phenomenon. Third, we show that mimicry has primary benefits for the mimicker. Second, we give examples of empirical evidence that mimicry is not always a social act. First, we argue that there is no good reason to believe that the mimicry of negative expressions is fundamentally different than the mimicry of positive or ambiguous or autonomic expressions.
In this commentary, we argue that the core function of mimicry is to ease predicting conspecifics' behaviours and the environment, and that as a consequence, this often smoothens social interactions. In their "social contextual view" of emotional mimicry, authors Hess and Fischer (2022) put forward emotional mimicry as a social regulator, considering it a social act, bound to certain affiliative contexts or goals. Our findings also mean the human potential for xenophilia is either evolutionarily shared or convergent with bonobos and not unique to our species as previously proposed. Xenophilia likely evolved in bonobos as the risk of intergroup aggression dissipated and the benefits of bonding between immigrating members increased. They support the first impression hypothesis that suggests xenophilia can evolve through individual selection in social species whenever the benefits of building new bonds outweigh the costs. These experiments reveal that xenophilia in bonobos can be unselfish, proactive and automatic. Bonobos also showed evidence for involuntary, contagious yawning in response to videos of yawning conspecifics who were complete strangers. Bonobos voluntarily aided an unfamiliar, non-group member in obtaining food even when he/she did not make overt requests for help. In a set of experiments we demonstrate that semi-free ranging bonobos (Pan paniscus) – both juveniles and young adults – also show spontaneous responses consistent with xenophilia. Modern humans live in an “exploded” network with unusually large circles of trust that form due to prosociality toward unfamiliar people (i.e.
In conclusion, yawn contagion may be a socially modulated phenomenon that remains largely unexpressed when individuals share weak social affiliation. We failed to detect yawn contagion in both naturalistic and experimental settings, with yawning being possibly associated with anxiety during video shows (revealed by the increased frequency of self-directed behaviors). Anxiety-related self-directed behaviors were recorded in all conditions and settings. During the video demonstration (avatar yawn/control unfamiliar gorilla yawn/control), we checked for the attentional state of the subjects. For the first time, we applied to the same subjects the naturalistic approach typically used in ethology (all occurrences behavioral sampling) and the experimental approach typically used in psychology (response to video stimuli). If the expression of yawn contagion is linked to the investment of animals in establishing long-term social relationships, the phenomenon should not be detected in gorillas (social relationship hypothesis). Gorillas stand out because they are spatially aggregated but show especially low levels of social affiliation.
Gorillas share with geladas a similar basic social structure (one dominant male and several adult females with offspring) and differ from bonobos and chimpanzees, which live in multimale-multifemale societies. This study focuses on the possible expression of yawn contagion in western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). In these species, individuals form strong, long-term relationships and yawn contagion is highest between closely bonded individuals. Yawn contagion has been reported in humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, geladas, wolves, and dogs. Yawn contagion, possibly a form of emotional contagion, occurs when a subject yawns in response to others' yawns.
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