Have you ever met someone and wondered if they were a psychopath? The truth is, there are plenty of signs of psychopathy, but most involve getting to know the person first. Research has shown that there is actually a much quicker and easier way to tell, and all you have to do is yawn.
When it comes to psychopaths, they often exhibit traits like superficiality, narcissism, a grandiose sense of self, pathological lying, a lack of guilt and empathy, and so much more. Research has also shown that staying friends with an ex could make you a possible psychopath. But when you’re making a judgment call and have zero inclination to spend excessive amounts of time with the person you suspect, yawning around them could be the key.
If someone cannot correctly yawn, it may mean they have an issue with their nervous system. When we yawn, our nervous systems release energy. When you cannot yawn, it means that the system is not expelling energy normally, which can lead to an unhealthy accumulation of that energy.
However, yawning is also linked to empathy. So, when people see others yawn, they too end up yawning, which is called contagious yawning.
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But not yawning can also indicate a lack of empathy. People who are less empathetic are less likely to yawn when they see another person yawn. This could lead people to believe that those with unempathetic disorders, like sociopathy or psychopathy, won’t be able to yawn.
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According to one particular 2015 study published in “Personality and Individual Differences,” researchers found that there is a link between being a psychopath and yawning. To be more specific, when you yawn in the presence of a psychopath, the psychopath will not “catch” a yawn.
Baylor University researchers gathered 135 subjects, had them take the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, and then conducted an experiment where they exposed the subjects to yawning. According to researchers, it all comes down to empathy. One of the signs of a psychopath is their lack of empathy towards another person. Empathy is known to be one of the core psychological factors that can lead to catching a yawn.
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If you want to test your own contagious yawning, watch this video. How long did you last without yawning? The first 5 seconds? Or all the way to the end? Chances are you’ve caught yawns from friends, family, a favorite tv character, or even a pet! Don’t be too hard on yourself if you didn’t yawn from the video. Putting pressure on yourself to yawn is a surefire way not to yawn!
To truly be diagnosed as a psychopath, you need to see a professional clinician and be given an assessment using the Psychopathy Checklist, which is a 20-item semi-structured interview that takes about three hours to administer.
Sure, the yawn test might not be infallible, but next time you’re on a date or at a networking function, and you get a vibe about someone, it might be worth a try. This is an especially great tool to have in your arsenal when you have no intention of getting to know someone, but you feel inclined to test them on a first-impression basis.
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Caithlin Pena is an editor and former contributor for YourTango. Her work has been featured on Thought Catalog, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Psych Central, and BRIDES.
