Abstract
In humans and apes, yawn contagion echoes emotional contagion, the basal layer of empathy. Hence, yawn contagion is a unique tool to compare empathy across species. If humans are the most empathic animal species, they should show the highest empathic response also at the level of emotional contagion. We gathered data on yawn contagion in humans (Homo sapiens) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) by applying the same observational paradigm and identical operational definitions. We selected a naturalistic approach because experimental management practices can produce different psychological and behavioural biases in the two species, and differential attention to artificial stimuli. Within species, yawn contagion was highest between strongly bonded subjects. Between species, sensitivity to others’ yawns was higher in humans than in bonobos when involving kin and friends but was similar when considering weakly-bonded subjects. Thus, emotional contagion is not always highest in humans. The cognitive components concur in empowering emotional affinity between individuals. Yet, when they are not in play, humans climb down from the empathic podium to return to the “understory”, which our species shares with apes.
Highlights
Most behavioral and cognitive studies have used the most sophisticated human abilities as the main ground to make comparative arguments
We employed Linear Mixed Models (LMM) to verify which variables could explain the variation in the frequency of yawn contagion
The inter-specific analysis of the overall frequency of yawn contagion did not reveal any difference between human and bonobo response susceptibility
Summary
Most behavioral and cognitive studies have used the most sophisticated human abilities (e.g., theory of mind and language) as the main ground to make comparative arguments. This top-down approach has contributed to drawing the line between human and other animals’ skills. Selecting the emotional and cognitive “pinnacles of mental evolution” the human brain While the hominin fossil record cannot give us any clues on the social and emotional abilities that may have paved the way for the emergence of human empathy, studying synchronous behaviours and body resonance (e.g., laughing, rapid facial mimicry, yawning; Provine, 2012; Davila-Ross, How to cite this article Palagi et al (2014), Yawn contagion in humans and bonobos: emotional affinity matters more than species. Menzler & Zimmermann, 2008; Mancini, Ferrari & Palagi, 2013a) in our closest living relatives may provide valuable information about how empathy evolved
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