SUNY Polytechnic Institute Professor of Biopsychology Dr. Andrew Gallup and SUNY Poly alum Sabina Wozny have published new research in the American Psychological Association’s Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences journal titled, “Seeing other people yawn selectively enhances vigilance: A conceptual replication.”
 
Prior research backs the hypothesis that seeing other people yawn enhances vigilance by improving the ability to detect snakes. In this study, Dr. Gallup and Wozny replicated this effect showing that exposure to people yawning similarly enhances the detection of a different type of predator: lions. Overall, their findings provide further support that merely witnessing others yawn elicits cognitive changes that improve threat detection during periods of enhanced vulnerability.
 
Read more