Everyone give up psychopaths are everywhere and we’re all doomed.
So, you know how yawns are contagious? Like, if you see a person yawn, you’ll yawn within five seconds as if you caught the yawn from them? Here, try it:
Well, psychologists have long thought that the ‘contagious yawn’ phenomenon was related to the amount of empathy one has for others. The very sciencey scince-based theory goes that catching a yawn after seeing someone else yawn is something that happens only between social mammals who feel a sense of empathy and/or bonding.
So, of course, that means if you didn’t yawn when you looked at the Kimmy K/Sloth combo you are definitely a SOULLESS MONSTER.
According to Brian Rundle, a doctoral student in psychology at Baylor University, people with psychopathic tendencies are far less likely to catch yawns because they lack emotional connections and empathy.
From Rundle:
“I thought, ‘If it’s true that yawning is related to empathy, I’ll bet that psychopaths yawn a lot less.’ So I put it to the test.”
Rundle put his theory to the test by asking 135 students to take the Psychopathic Personality Inventory questionnaire. He then showed those students videos of people yawning, laughing or just sitting around. And wouldn’t you know – the students who didn’t yawn when they saw images of other people yawning were the same students who scored in the ‘possibly a psychopath’ range of the questionnaire.
ERGO (science!), if you don’t yawn when you see another person yawn, YOU ARE A PSYCHOPATH. Science says so. It is so proved. NEXT.
