question: Why do you yawn after seeing someone else yawn?
comment: Yawning in animals is generally a full body thing, you ever do a massive yawn where you have to stretch your arms and tense your leg muscles and stuff? It's a pack/herd animal adaption. Deer and Zebras it's really clear in, when some of the group is sleeping and some are keeping watch, one will yawn/stretch to keep itself alert, which triggers the others to do so too, keeping all the awake deer alert to danger. Happens in wolves and different apes and basically and group unit animal. Tl;dr it's just an evolutionary thing we have to keep us safe but don't really need anymore.
passages: Another notion states that yawning is the body's way of controlling brain temperature. In 2007, researchers, including a professor of psychology from the University of Albany, proposed yawning may be a means to keep the brain cool. Mammalian brains operate best within a narrow temperature range. In two experiments, subjects with cold packs attached to their foreheads and subjects asked to breathe strictly-nasally exhibited reduced contagious-yawning when watching videos of people yawning. 
   The yawn reflex has long been observed to be contagious. In 1508, Erasmus wrote, "One man's yawning makes another yawn", and the French proverbialized the idea to "Un bon bâilleur en fait bâiller sept" ("One good gaper makes seven others gape"). Often, if one person yawns, this may cause another person to "empathetically" yawn. Observing another person's yawning face (especially his/her eyes), reading or thinking about yawning, or looking at a yawning picture can cause a person to yawn. The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which, upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain. Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation, which lies at the root of much human learning, such as language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse.
   In a study involving gelada baboons, yawning was contagious between individuals, especially those that were socially close. This suggests that emotional proximity rather than spatial proximity is an indicator of yawn contagion.
   There is still substantial disagreement in the existing literature about whether or not yawn contagion is related to empathy at all. Empathy is a notoriously difficult trait to measure, and the literature on the subject is confused, with the same species sometimes displaying a connection between contagious yawning and social closeness, and sometimes not. Different experimenters typically use slightly different measures of empathy, making comparisons between studies difficult, and there may be a publication bias, where studies which find a significant correlation between the two tested variables are more likely to be published than studies which do not.
  
  Section::::Animal yawning.
   A study by the University of London has suggested that the "contagiousness" of yawns by a human will pass to dogs. The study observed that 21 of 29 dogs yawned when a stranger yawned in front of them, but did not yawn when the stranger only opened his mouth. 
   Yawning ("oscitation") most often occurs in adults immediately before and after sleep, during tedious activities and as a result of its contagious quality. It is commonly associated with tiredness, stress, sleepiness, or even boredom and hunger. In humans, yawning is often triggered by others yawning (e.g. seeing a person yawning, talking to someone on the phone who is yawning) and is a typical example of positive feedback. This "contagious" yawning has also been observed in chimpanzees, dogs, cats, and reptiles (including birds), and can occur across species. Approximately 20 psychological reasons for yawning have been proposed by scholars, but there is little agreement on the primacy of any one.
   Gordon Gallup, who hypothesizes that yawning may be a means of keeping the brain cool, also hypothesizes that "contagious" yawning may be a survival instinct inherited from our evolutionary past. "During human evolutionary history, when we were subject to predation and attacks by other groups, if everybody yawns in response to seeing someone yawn the whole group becomes much more vigilant and much better at being able to detect danger."
   Section::::Culture.
   Two classes of yawning have been observed among primates. In some cases, the yawn is used as a threat gesture as a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. Specific studies were conducted on chimpanzees and stumptail macaques. A group of these animals was shown a video of other members of their own species yawning; both species yawned as well. This helps to partly confirm a yawn's "contagiousness".
   One study states that yawning occurs when one's blood contains increased amounts of carbon dioxide and therefore becomes in need of the influx of oxygen (or expulsion of carbon dioxide) that a yawn can provide. Yawning may, in fact, reduce oxygen intake compared to normal respiration. However, neither providing more oxygen nor reducing carbon dioxide in air decreased yawning.
   The dog may yawn when someone bends over him, when you sound angry, when there is yelling and quarreling in the family, when the dog is at the vet's office, when someone is walking directly at the dog, when the dog is excited with happiness and anticipation – for instance by the door when you are about to go for a walk, when you ask the dog to do something he doesn´t feel like doing, when your training sessions are too long and the dog gets tired, when you have said NO for doing something you disapprove of, and in many other situations.
   The Discovery Channel's show "MythBusters" also tested this concept. In their small-scale, informal study they concluded that yawning is contagious, although elsewhere the statistical significance of this finding has been disputed.
   Yawning behavior may be altered as a result of medical issues such as diabetes, stroke, or adrenal conditions.
  
  Section::::Social function.
  
  To look at the issue in terms of a possible evolutionary advantage, yawning might be a herd instinct. For example, theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood in gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods.
   Another proposal points out that animals subject to predation or other dangers must be ready to physically exert themselves at any given moment. At least one study suggests that yawning, especially psychological "contagious" yawning, may have developed as a way of keeping a group of animals alert. If an animal is drowsy or bored, it may not be as alert as it should be - to spring into action. Therefore, the "contagious" yawn could be an instinctual reaction to a signal from one member of the group reminding the others to stay alert.
   In certain neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, the patient has an impaired ability to infer the mental states of others. In such cases, yawn contagion can be used to evaluate their ability to infer or empathize with others. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder which severely affects social and communicative development, including empathy. The results of various studies have showed a diminished susceptibility to contagious yawn compared to the control group of typically-developing children. Since atypical development of empathy is reported in autism spectrum disorder, results support the claim that contagious yawning and the capacity of empathy share common neural and cognitive mechanisms. Similarly, patients suffering neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, have shown an impaired ability to empathize with others. Contagious yawning is one means of evaluating such disorders. The Canadian psychiatrist Heinz Lehmann claimed that increases in yawning could predict recovery in schizophrenia. The impairment of contagious yawning can provide greater insight into its connection to the underlying causes of empathy.
   Research by Garrett Norris (2013) involving monitoring the behavior of students kept waiting in a reception area indicates a connection (supported by neuro-imaging research) between empathic ability and yawning. "We believe that contagious yawning indicates empathy. It indicates an appreciation of other peoples' behavioral and physiological state," says Norris.
   The relationship between yawn contagion and empathy is strongly supported by a 2011 behavioral study, conducted by Ivan Norscia and Elisabetta Palagi (University of Pisa, Italy). The study revealed that—among other variables such as nationality, gender, and sensory modality—only social bonding predicted the occurrence, frequency, and latency of yawn contagion. As with other measures of empathy, the rate of contagion was found to be greatest in response to kin, then friends, then acquaintances, and lastly strangers. Related individuals (r≥0.25) showed the greatest contagion, in terms of both occurrence of yawning and frequency of yawns. Strangers and acquaintances showed a longer delay in the yawn response (latency) compared to friends and kin. Hence, yawn contagion appears to be primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals.
   There are a number of theories that attempt to explain why humans and other animals yawn. It is likely that there are a number of triggers for the behavior. However, there are comparatively few theories that attempt to explain the primary evolutionary reason for the yawn.
   In animals, yawning can serve as a warning signal. For example, Charles Darwin, in his book "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals", mentioned that baboons yawn to threaten their enemies, possibly by displaying large canine teeth. Similarly, Siamese fighting fish yawn only when they see a conspecific (same species) or their own mirror-image, and their yawn often accompanies aggressive attack. Guinea pigs also yawn in a display of dominance or anger, displaying their impressive incisor teeth. This is often accompanied by teeth chattering, purring and scent marking. Adelie penguins employ yawning as part of their courtship ritual. Penguin couples face off and the males engage in what is described as an "ecstatic display", opening their beaks and pointing their faces skyward. This trait has also been seen among emperor penguins. Researchers have been attempting to discover why these two different species share this trait, despite not sharing a habitat. Snakes yawn, both to realign their jaws after a meal and for respiratory reasons, as their trachea can be seen to expand when they do this. Dogs, and occasionally cats, often yawn after seeing people yawn and when they feel uncertain. Dogs demonstrate contagious yawning when exposed to human yawning. Dogs are very adept at reading human communication actions, so it is unclear if this phenomenon is rooted in evolutionary history or a result of domestication. Fish can also yawn, and they increase this behavior due to lack of oxygen.
   Evidence for the occurrence of contagious yawning linked to empathy is rare outside of primates. It has been studied in Canidae species, such as the domestic dog and wolf. Domestic dogs have shown the ability to yawn contagiously in response to human yawns. Domestic dogs have demonstrated they are skilled at reading human communication behaviors. This ability makes it difficult to ascertain whether yawn contagion among domestic dogs is deeply rooted in their evolutionary history or is a result of domestication. 
   In a 2014 study, wolves were observed in an effort to answer this question. The results of the study showed that wolves are capable of yawn contagion. This study also found that the social bond strength between individuals affected the frequency of contagious yawning in wolves, supporting previous research which ties contagious yawning to emotional proximity.
  
  Some evidence for contagious yawning has also been found in budgerigars ("Melopsittacus undulatus"), a species of social parrots. This indicates that contagious yawning may have evolved several times in different lineages. In budgerigars, contagious yawning does not seem to be related to social closeness.
   Helt and Eigsti (2010) showed that dogs, like humans, develop a susceptibility to contagious yawning gradually, and that while dogs above seven months 'catch' yawns from humans, younger dogs are immune to contagion. The study also indicated that nearly half of the dogs responded to the human's yawn by becoming relaxed and sleepy, suggesting that the dogs copied not just the yawn, but also the physical state that yawns typically reflect.
  
  Yawning has multiple possible functions, and may occur when the body perceives the benefits.
  
  Section::::Social function.:Relation to empathy.
   A similar hypothesis suggests yawning is used for regulation of body temperature. Similarly, Guttmann and Dopart (2011) found, that, when a subject wearing earplugs yawned, a breeze is heard, caused by the flux of the air moving between the subject's ear and the environment. Guttmann and Dopart determined that a yawn causes one of three possible situations to occur: the brain cools down due to an influx or outflux of oxygen, the pressure in the brain is reduced by an outflux of oxygen, or the pressure of the brain is increased by an influx of air caused by increased cranial space.
   Raised ICP, tachycardia, or some other endogenous stimulus can result in distortion and/or increased pressure on the brainstem. Since the brainstem controls involuntary breathing, changes in its homeostasis often results in irregular respiratory pattern and/or apnea. This is the third and final stage of the reflex.
   Brain plateau wave changes are also associated with the Cushing reflex. These waves are characterized by acute rises of the ICP, and are accompanied by a decrease of the cerebral perfusion pressure. It has been found that if a Cushing reflex occurs, brain plateau wave changes can be erased due to disappearance of high ICP.
  
  Section::::Mechanism.
  