Find out the science behind yawning and laughing.
Next time you find yourself laughing or yawning in class just because the kid next to you did it first, you can blame nature for it. Yawning and laughing are contagious and there's not much you can do to stop it.
It's true, laughing really is contagious. According to a study by British neuroscientists, the sound of laughter causes the brain to automatically trigger facial muscles, making you smile or laugh, too. Even babies laugh when they see their mothers laughing. Nothing like laughing together to make you feel like you belong. Some scientists think laughter is a primitive social behavior that is older than language.
While laughing makes us feel like a group, yawning helps keep the group on its toes. Scientists think that yawning is the body's way of cooling the brain to keep it alert. If one person starts to yawn, it sends a signal to everyone else in the group to perk up and yawn, too. Researchers who studied brain scans found that yawning is activated in an unconscious part of the brain, so we don't have much control over the urge to do it. Yawning might have been designed to keep us alert when we were out hunting, but it's especially helpful for trying to stay awake during first period.
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