THE WORLD THIS WEEK: Copycat yawners are caring

Do you always start yawning when you see someone else doing it? Scientists say it may be because you’re caring. A team from Leeds University carried out a study and found that people who copied other people’s yawns were more understanding. They got their results with a sneaky technique. Volunteers were asked to wait in a room with one of the researchers who had been put there to yawn and see how often the volunteer yawned back! The results showed that the volunteers who yawned the most were likely to be concerned of other’s feelings.