Yawning Bug

While I was traveling to my mom's workplace to pick her up, I sat beside this guy who's such a yawning machine. Everytime I glanced at him, he had his mouth open. Of course, when you see a stimulus like that, you can't help but yawn yourself. Very similar to once a dog barks and another dog hears it, it is likely that the second dog would bark too.

Recently, Mythbusters featured this yawning bug. The Mythbusters assistants picked people randomly and put them in a room seated in a semi-circle. The test subjects waited for a few minutes with nuthin to do. They were informed not to speak either. After awhile, they were given this boring piece of document to read. Still no one was yawning. Then suddenly, this young woman yawned. The mythbusters thought people would jump on the bandwagon but they were wrong. The test was inconclusive.

The Mythbusters hosts, Adam & Jamie, joined in. They did it once more but with slight changes. This time, the assistant yawned before she guided the test subject inside this portalet-looking cubicle (causing a stimulus). With nuthin to look at, the person inside were told to wait... and wait... and wait. There was a small hole so the camera can pick whatever is happenin inside. After sometime, the person waiting started to yawn. Success!

There was a good percentage difference when the assistant yawned and when she merely guided the subject inside. The show concluded that the myth is busted.