Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption People are less likely to catch yawns the older they are, the study found 
 
 People are less likely to yawn when others do as they get older, a study has found. There was also no strong connection between yawning and empathy or intelligence, and age was only able to explain about 8 per cent of variability in the contagious yawn response, they said. Empathy (IRI), usual sleepiness level, cognitive performance, emotional contagion, and a chronotype measure (CIRENS) were included as potential covariates along with the participant's age. Scores for perceived yawning susceptibility were enriched for a perception of being susceptible, with 94% of participants indicating that they sometimes, often, or usually yawned when they saw someone else yawn; in contrast, only 68% of participants actually yawned during this study. Dr Elizabeth Cirulli, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who led the study said: "Age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, and even age was not that important. Despite these limitations, our work clearly demonstrates the stability of intra-individual variation in susceptibility to contagious yawning, a significant negative correlation between age and the contagious yawning response, and the inability of any known variables to explain the vast majority of variation in contagious yawn responses.
– It can be tough not to yawn when the guy next to you does—but apparently, it gets a little easier to avoid doing so as we get older. The finding comes from a study of contagious yawning among 328 subjects who were shown a three-minute clip of others yawning. Each time a participant yawned, he or she had to click a button, the BBC reports. Some 68% of subjects yawned, but the rate varied among different age groups: 82% of under-25s yawned, while 60% of 25- to 49-year-olds did. Just 41% of those older than 50 yawned. Yawning contagiousness wasn't strongly linked to empathy or intelligence, the Independent reports—a finding that appears to run counter to earlier research, the BBC points out. Still, age accounted for just 8% of the variation in the phenomenon, per the head of the study, and "the vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained," she says. Researchers note that those with autism and schizophrenia are thought to be less likely to "catch" a yawn; genetic research on yawning could help in finding treatments for the conditions. (In other yawning news, it turns out your dogs can catch your yawns.)