A new study suggests that the contagious yawning of dogs has an emotional connection to the owners.
In an interview of the LA Times with Teresa Romero, lead author of the study from the University of Tokyo, stated "Our study suggests that contagious yawning in dogs is emotionally connected in a way similar to humans. Although our study cannot determine the exact underlying mechanism operative in dogs, the subjects' physiological measures taken during the study allowed us to counter the alternative hypothesis of yawning as a distress response."
Scientists think that the man’s best friend might be feeling empathy for their owners when they do what humans often do with one another: contagious yawning.
The researchers studied 25 dogs with ages 1 and above. The team observed the dogs’ reaction to whenever their masters yawn or make a facial expression. They compared their observation to how the dogs react to the same scenario with a stranger. There were no treats given to the dog to force them to react.
After careful comparison of the observations, the research team concluded that dogs yawn more often when the yawner is their owner as opposed to a stranger.
Yawning, in general, happened in an average of once during the yawning part of the research, and 0.2 times during the controlled facial acts.
The researchers concluded that contagious yawning affects 45 percent to 60 percent of adults and may be linked with the brain activities responsible for empathy and social skills. They also added that contagious yawning has also been observed in bonobos, chimpanzees, and gelada baboons.
Previous studies have shown that dogs yawn in reaction to our yawns, but it’s still vague if this was an empathetic response or a mild stress response. However, in the recent study, the researchers noted the heartbeats of the dogs and removed the mild stress response.
Empathetic yawning could be a means to understand the root of empathy in animal evolution.
This study was published in the Aug. 7 issue of the online journal PLOS One.
