Could yawning be the key to figuring out if someone is a psychopath?


If you're curious about whether a colleague, relative, romantic partner, or total stranger is a psychopath, try this simple test: Yawn, and see if they yawn back.
A new study has found that people with psychopathic personality traits don't "catch" the contagious yawn because they aren't very empathetic, lead author Brian Rundle told Today.com. Rundle says that yawning when you see someone else doing it is a primitive form of communication and bonding, but said you can't automatically label someone who doesn't yawn back at you a psychopath: You're less likely to yawn after someone else if you are older, and more likely to yawn if you know the person.
Researchers had 135 college students fill out the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, which is a standard assessment of psychopathic traits. Then, the students watched 10-second videos of people laughing, yawning, and doing nothing. They wore electrodes on their fingers, foreheads, and eyelids so they could be monitored. Rundle said those who were lower in psychopathic traits were nearly twice as likely to yawn as those who were high in those traits, but there were some students low in psychopathic traits who did not yawn, indicating more research needs to be done with a larger sample size. Rundle wants people to keep in mind that "people high in psychopathic traits may just be hard to connect with. It doesn't mean they are malicious individuals."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Spain's love of sunflower seeds is wrecking its football stadiums
Under the Radar One club controversially bans 'national vice' as discarded 'pipas' shells block drains and erode concrete
-
Today's political cartoons - May 11, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - shark-infested waters, Mother's Day, and more
-
5 fundamentally funny cartoons about the US Constitution
Cartoons Artists take on Sharpie edits, wear and tear, and more
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beat
speed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammals
Speed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its prey
Speed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant world
Speed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocket
Speed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
-
Scientists map miles of wiring in mouse brain
Speed Read Researchers have created the 'largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date,' said Nature
-
Scientists genetically revive extinct 'dire wolves'
Speed Read A 'de-extinction' company has revived the species made popular by HBO's 'Game of Thrones'
-
Dark energy may not doom the universe, data suggests
Speed Read The dark energy pushing the universe apart appears to be weakening