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Contagious Yawning in Autistic and Typical Development Child Development, September/October 2010, Volume 81, Number 5, Pages 1620–1631 Contagious Yawning in Autistic and Typical Development Molly S. Helt and Inge-Marie Eigsti Peter J. Snyder University of Connecticut Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Deborah A. Fein University of Connecticut The authors tested susceptibility to contagious yawning in 120 children, 1–6 years, to identify the time course of its emergence during development. Results indicated a substantial increase in the frequency of contagious yawning at 4 years. In a second study, the authors examined contagious yawning in 28 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 6–15 years. Children with ASD showed diminished susceptibility to contagious yawning compared with 2 control groups matched for mental and chronological age, respectively. In addi- tion, children diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) a milder variant of autism, were more susceptible to contagious yawning than were children diagnosed with full Autistic Disorder. The authors explore the implications of these findings for theories about the develop- ment of mimicry and emotional contagion. Contagion refers to the tendency of a particular roots of automatic social behaviors that potentially behavior to spread through a group in a ‘‘chain lay the foundations for the development of reaction.’’ The behaviors that most often trigger empathy. contagious reactions in others are those that signify At least one mechanism by which emotional con- the inner states of others (Hatfield, Caccioppo, & tagion comes about is via the underlying processes Rapson, 1994). For example, infants in hospital of mimicry and afferent feedback (Hatfield et al., nurseries begin to cry when they hear other babies 1994). Whereas imitation involves the conscious, crying (Hoffman, 1978; Simner, 1971), and laugh effortful reproduction of another’s behavior, mim- tracks accompany most television situational come- icry refers to nonvolitional ‘‘matching’’ behavior dies because hearing the laughter of others prompts (Want & Harris, 2002). As we interact with some- our own laughter (Bush, Barr, McHugo, & Lanzetta, one, we often subconsciously mimic (often at a 1989; Provine, 2000). Similarly, seeing another per- level undetectable to the naked eye or ear) their son yawn, thinking about yawning, reading the facial expressions, bodily postures, and speech word yawn, or even hearing the word can elicit a patterns (see Niedenthal, Barsalou, Ric, & Krauth- yawn in 40%–60% of normal adults when exposed Gruber, 2005, for a review). to such stimuli under experimental conditions When a person mimics, the activation of his or (Baenninger & Greco, 1991; Platek, Critton, Myers, her emotional body schemas also creates an emo- & Gallup, 2003; Provine, 1989). Such forms of behav- tional reaction that corresponds to the movements ioral contagion may reflect or facilitate emotional being mimicked (i.e., the act of smiling causes us to contagion, which refers to the tendency of individu- feel happier). This was first known as facial feed- als to converge emotionally with those around us. back (Capella, 1993), but research has now docu- The property of contagion, as applied to emotions, mented similar effects for gesture, posture, and offers psychologists an opportunity to study the vocal prosody (see McIntosh, 1996, for a review), and so may be more accurately referred to as affer- ent feedback (Hatfield et al., 1994). The coupling of These data were collected as part of the requirement for com- our automatic tendency to mimic others and the pletion of the masters thesis of the first author. We thank Kastley Marrin and Melissa Fernandez for their patience and attention to effects of afferent feedback on our own emotional detail in coding and entering data. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Molly S. Helt, Department of Psychology, University of Connect- Ó 2010 The Authors icut, 406 Babbidge Rd, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269. Electronic Child Development Ó 2010 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. mail may be sent to [email protected]. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2010/8105-0021 Contagious Yawning 1621 states may explain the ubiquity of emotional conta- distinct facial expression (Provine, 1996). The exis- gion: Because we unconsciously match the emo- tence of an emotion yawn suggests that contagious tional movements of others, we unconsciously feel yawning may be considered a form of emotional the emotions of others as we interact with them. contagion. On the other hand, yawning may not Similarly, this account of mimicry may explain its signal an emotion but may simply be a facial psychological utility: Emotional contagion may expression that is unintentionally mimicked, as are allow human beings to intuit the feelings of those other nonemotional facial expressions (Heyes, around us when we interact socially (Rogers & Wil- 2001). If so, then its contagiousness may simply be liams, 2006). a by-product of ubiquitous facial mimicry, perhaps Yawning is a type of mimicry in that it is a evolutionarily adaptive because it facilitates conta- matching behavior that is produced unconsciously. gion of ‘‘true’’ emotions. In either case, the disrup- The robust effects for contagious yawning found by tion of mimicry, which may be demonstrated by a Provine et al. (1986) when they exposed partici- disruption in contagious yawning, should have pants to videos of people yawning disappeared consequences for emotional resonance with others. when the participants knew they were being Indeed, empathetic people exhibit greater amounts watched (Provine, 2005), supporting the idea that of all forms of mimicry (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999) contagious yawning is an unconscious process that and are reportedly more susceptible to contagious may actually be suppressed by conscious aware- yawning (Platek et al., 2003). ness. However, contagious yawning appears to be a special kind of mimicry. Unlike the miniscule mus- Development of Mimicry, Emotional Contagion, and cular movements, often undetectable to the naked Contagious Yawning eye, that mimicry typically entails, yawns—large, obvious sequences of movements, difficult to stop Some capacity for mimicry and emotional conta- once initiated and lasting for up to 10 s—are a very gion appears to be present from birth. Infants as visible result of such mimicry. The explanation for young as 3 hr old execute some behaviors after wit- this may derive from the fact that yawning is a fixed nessing them modeled by an adult (Meltzoff & action pattern (Provine, 1986). A fixed action pattern Moore, 1977), most reliably, tongue protrusion (for is a species-typical behavioral sequence that is indi- a review, see Rogers, 2006). Similarly, a case has visible and, once initiated, runs to completion. Fixed been made for the presence of emotional contagion action patterns are invariant and are triggered by from the first days of life; specifically, newborn a neural network called the ‘‘innate releasing infants will cry when they hear other babies crying mechanism’’ in response to a ‘‘sign stimulus’’ or in the nursery, but not in response to computer- ‘‘releaser’’ (in this case, the yawns of others act as generated sounds matched for acoustic properties an innate releasing mechanism; Tinbergen, 1951). (Simner, 1971). According to one point of view, Perhaps the phenomenon of contagious yawning can newborn ‘‘matching’’ behaviors are early examples be explained by the idea that mimicking the first of the strong link between the perception of actions part of a fixed action pattern (as would be expected and emotions in others, and the experience of these if one were mimicking the facial expressions or actions and emotions in ourselves, thus setting the vocalizations of a conspecific as he or she begins to stage for imitative abilities that emerge later and yawn) is likely to trigger the release of the entire underlie critical aspects of social and emotional behavior. development. However, early mimetic behaviors In addition to being a form of mimicry, conta- and contagious crying gradually become less fre- gious yawning appears to involve an emotional quent after birth. Imitative tongue protrusion disap- component. Deputte (1994) identified two contexts pears by 2–3 months (Abravanel & Sigafoos, 1984), for yawns: the ‘‘rest yawn’’ observed when the con- and whereas 84% of newborns exhibit contagious text involves a change in arousal level, and the crying, only 24% of 3- to 12-month-old infants do emotion yawn (which he noted could also be so (Bu¨ hler & Hetzer, 1928). In place of full-blown referred to as a ‘‘social yawn’’). He defined the contagious crying, infants at 10–14 months are emotion yawn as an action used as an unconscious much more likely to mimic the distressed facial communication of psychological decompression expressions of other crying children (Zahn-Waxler, after a state of high alert. Yawning is also similar to Radke-Yarrow, & King, 1979). Given these the other highly contagious acts of crying and decreases in matching behaviors after 2–3 months, laughing, both of which represent emotional states, it is unclear whether these early behaviors are in that it produces a distinct sound, as well as a continuous with later developing capacities for 1622 Helt, Eigsti, Snyder, and Fein mimicry and emotional contagion. Mimicry and ple, an experimenter opening a box in a child’s emotional contagion seem to ‘‘reappear’’ during the presence and looking delighted or afraid (Scambler second half of the 1st year and then continue to et al., 2006) or an experimenter injuring herself expand thereafter. For example, by 9 months, (Bacon, Fein, Morris, & Waterhouse, 1998). babies take on the basic moods and facial expres- One study has examined contagious yawning in sions of their caregivers, such as joy and sadness children and adolescents with diagnoses including (Termine & Izard, 1988). A longitudinal study by Autistic Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disor- Jones (1996) found that mimicry of distinct actions der, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), and appeared at distinct periods in development Asperger’s disorder. Participants with ASD were between 6 and 18 months.
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