Mariska Kret
Appearances
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Yawns are contagious because yawning is an evolutionary, very relevant behavior. When people yawn, they literally cool down their brain and people can become more attentive. And this is actually why humans are not alone in yawning. Many, many different species yawn, even fish yawn. So if in a certain situation, It's good to be attentive.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
For example, you can see animals yawn in stressful situations a lot. And then, yeah, you very often see that those types of behaviors are copied, are mimicked. Yeah. So I'm not surprised that this has been spreading in the classroom. Actually, when I talk about yawning and also scratching, I also study contagious scratching.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
A bit itchy. And yeah, it's really very contagious.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Yeah. So it's that. So emotional expressions in themselves have benefits. So for example, well, I already told you, you know, when you're yawning, you cool down your brain. So that has an advantage for yourself. For example, the expression of disgust, you close your eyes, you close your nose, you stick out your tongue, you do everything right.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
to protect your body actually from potential poisonous information. So this has also benefits for yourself. But if there is someone standing next to you and sees that expression on your face, it also has benefits for the other individual to mimic that expression. So, for example, a poisonous, disgusting gas, rotten egg smell or something. So you close off your senses.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
You prevent this material to enter your body and harm your body. In fear, we actually do the opposite. You open your eyes. You open even your nostrils. There has been researchers actually showing that in fear, we do the opposite of what we do in disgust. Darwin was actually the first to report that.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
So in fear, we open our eyes, we open our nostrils, we breathe in, and we do everything to take in information. And research has actually shown that by opening your eyes, you can... perceptual benefits for the visual field. I don't know. So yeah, some expressions, not all, but some expressions have direct benefits for the expressor.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Well, maybe women. I don't know. He did say some things I didn't like about women. For the rest, I'm a big fan.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Yeah, that's an extreme version of a disgust expression.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
There has been done very little research as far as I know. I would have to check, but I know that there is at least a study looking at dogs and their owners.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
So there is a lot of mimicry going on between dogs and their owners. I think... although I know that there's also a lot of individual differences. Some people are much more susceptible to the yawns of other people than others. So we know, for example, people with high psychopathic traits are less susceptible.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Yeah.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
It's funny that you ask. So we did do blind date studies in my lab.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
And we did studies where we looked at the effects of young contagion on trust. We didn't look at yawning in the blind dates. That didn't really happen.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
They were smiling a lot and doing a lot of things in the blind dates. What we found was that actually only the synchronization on the physiological level, on the level of heart rate, was predicting dating success. And maybe a certain type of smile, not every smile, but the shy smile.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, especially when it comes to. finding a partner. People can be so picky. This other person has to have, I don't know, black hair and this and that and blue eyes and I don't know, this whole wishlist. And then the person that you actually click with can be completely different.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
HTDE: Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt
And then we find this really strong correlation between physiological synchrony, that's how it's called, and dating success.