Is it true that psychopaths are immune to contagious yawning?

Empathy is one of the core psychological factors that leads to catching yawns [2], a critical point underpinning a new study [3] indicating that psychopaths may be immune to contagious yawns. Psychopathy is defined, in part, by a lack of empathy. read more

Contagious yawning is indeed an empathetic response that is natural to most humans but less pronounced, and sometimes absent, in the observable behavior of psychopaths. Newer studies that have blurred the link between empathy and contagious yawning have been of poor quality but the link does exist. read more

A lack of empathy has already been known to relate to immunity to contagious yawning. Studies have shown, for example, that children on the autism spectrum are less likely to catch a yawn [4]. But this is the first study to show its link to psychopathy. Empathy may not be the only trait at play. Psychopaths also exhibit fearlessness as a typical trait. read more

If someone with a strong empathetic nature “catches” a yawn easily, it stands to reason that a person who lacks empathy would not yawn as often. To see if this was true, Rundle first had the study’s participants answer a standard psychological test to figure out where they landed on the psychopathic spectrum. read more