Scienceblogs reports on a study of yawning in chimpanzees carried out by scientists at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University.

The scientists showed chimps videos of other chimpanzees yawning and recorded the frequency at which the test chimp yawned back.

Interestingly, they found that the chimps tended to yawn significantly more often when the video displayed a chimp from their own social group, suggesting that the contagious nature of yawning has a strong empathetic element.

I can only assume that yawning rates would have skyrocketed had they shown the chimps videos of Ben Stein, though such a cruel act would never have passed ethics.

Tags: yawning, contagious, chimpanzee, ipod touch, scienceblogs, sleepy, empathy,

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