I’ll bet you’ll yawn when you read this April 22, 2008
Posted by fs2004 in Uncategorized.Tags: psychology, The Bell Jar, Wikipedia, yawn
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When I was reading The Bell Jar this evening, I came across the sentence “She yawned then, and her pale orange mouth opened on a large darkness,” found on page 100. Shortly after reading that sentence, I yawned. Are people psychologically conditioned to yawn when they see others yawning or read about yawning? Wikipedia indirectly argues that yes, people do indeed yawn because of “empathy” caused by others yawning. Though I did not take the SATs in the May session last year and the College Board makes all test-takers sign an agreement that they will not discuss the test with others, I remember talking with my friends last year just after the May SATs, when there was a reading comprehension passage about yawning. My friends complained of the agony of yawning through the entire passage, and beeing interrupted by everyone elses’ yawn in the room. A psychologist might argue that yawning is caused by conditioning.
So perhaps empathy is conditioning as well?
http://www.QuestioCunctus.com
The jury’s out on empathy I think. I’m not sure it’s caused by conditioning although some evidence suggests that a person doesn’t develop it in isolation. The research on the communal yawn is spotty, too. But I don’t see how conditioning accounts for it.