Empathy is a phenomenon often considered dependent on higher-order emotional control
and an ability to relate to the emotional state of others. It is, by many, attributed only to …

Highlights•Yawning is a highly conserved neurophysiological adaptation among
vertebrates.•The detection of yawning appears to be biologically important in social …

Despite decades of research with humans, the biological mechanisms that motivate an
individual to help others remain poorly understood. In order to investigate the roots of pro …

Social animals must detect, evaluate and respond to the emotional states of other
individuals in their group. A constellation of gestures, vocalizations, and chemosignals …

Various studies and researchers have proposed a link between contagious yawning and
empathy, yet the conceptual basis for the proposed connection is not clear and deserves …

Integration of social cues to initiate adaptive emotional and behavioral responses is a
fundamental aspect of animal and human behavior. In humans, social communication …

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use.
They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk …

Yawning is highly contagious, yet both its proximate mechanism (s) and its ultimate
causation remain poorly understood. Scholars have suggested a link between contagious …

In their “social contextual view” of emotional mimicry, authors Hess and Fischer (2022) put
forward emotional mimicry as a social regulator, considering it a social act, bound to certain …

Experimental evidence of contagious yawning has only been documented in four
mammalian species. Here, we report the results from two separate experimental studies …