14 DAY TRIAL // It turns out yawning is much more contagious than previously assumed. Not only can it easily spread from humans to dogs, but recent evidence suggests that chimps are also highly vulnerable to it.
In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE yesterday, researchers with the Lund University say that, according to their investigations, juvenile chimpanzees living in sanctuaries are likely to yawn when they see people doing so.
The researchers say this is because, at this age (i.e. 5 to 8 years old), the primates are developed enough to be able to empathize with their keepers or with other individuals.
Interestingly enough, it appears that juvenile chimpanzees yawn in response to a human doing the same regardless of how close they are to the person they are observing.
“The results of the study reflect a general developmental pattern, shared by humans and other animals. Given that contagious yawning may be an empathetic response, the results can also be taken to mean that empathy develops slowly over the first years of a chimpanzee's life,” researcher Elainie Madsen commented on these findings, as cited by Science Daily.