We all know the
phenomenon of one person yawning and all the others in the room not being able
to resist it. Even while I am writing this blog, I can’t help but cover my wide-open
mouth. Now, research found out that even dogs are not immune to being affected
by yawns of their owners. As if catching sticks from them wasn’t enough for
dogs to cope with…
A new study by Karine Silva,
Joana Bessa, and Liliana de Sousa (2012) reveals that dogs are very likely to yawn when they
listen to recordings of people yawning-especially when they listen to their
owners or family members. “The dogs yawned more than four times as much when
they heard their own yawn as when they heard a stranger”, it says in the Discover Magazine. This finding has been
used in earlier work to reinforce the assumption that dogs empathize with
humans, especially because children and people with autistic behavioural
patterns don’t seem to catch contagious yawns.
However, I venture to
say that exhibiting a similar behavior doesn’t necessarily mean that a person
or a dog shares the same feelings with you-even though the dog is supposed to
be man’s best friend. Bearing in mind that yawning has been considered a reflex
for a while now, it may simply be a matter of imitation after all…
For reference see: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/05/15/dogs-catch-yawns-from-their-owners-does-that-mean-they-empathize-with-us/
Nina
