In sum, the sample of articles on human contagious yawning that Gallup & Massen used to conclude that our result is a false positive is incorrect, because the cited articles cannot be reliably compared with our study. The comparative studies considering non-human animals were used to discuss why it is reasonable to interpret the different types of biases in contagious yawning in the light of the role that the individuals play in their social groups. Finally, not to replicate previously published results, we focused on the subjects that showed yawn contagion and we made sure that the eliciting stimulus was perceived. In our study, we found that women produce slightly more yawns than men (moderate effect size) and that gender plays a statistically significant role in susceptible people, with women showing a higher level of yawn contagion than men.We are confident that future studies will confirm our results.

Difference in contagious yawning between susceptible men and women: why not?

Palagi Elisabetta
2016

Abstract

In sum, the sample of articles on human contagious yawning that Gallup & Massen used to conclude that our result is a false positive is incorrect, because the cited articles cannot be reliably compared with our study. The comparative studies considering non-human animals were used to discuss why it is reasonable to interpret the different types of biases in contagious yawning in the light of the role that the individuals play in their social groups. Finally, not to replicate previously published results, we focused on the subjects that showed yawn contagion and we made sure that the eliciting stimulus was perceived. In our study, we found that women produce slightly more yawns than men (moderate effect size) and that gender plays a statistically significant role in susceptible people, with women showing a higher level of yawn contagion than men.We are confident that future studies will confirm our results.
2016
Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione - ISTC
yawn contagion
gender bias
Homo sapiens
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14243/329871
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