If you’ve ever had a friend, work colleague or relation that definitely balances on the side of crazy some days of the week, there’s now a test to check their psychopathic tendencies.
According to the latest research published in Personality and Individual Differences, if a person in your company doesn’t ‘catch’ your yawn, they might be a psychopath.
Conducted by Baylor University, the study was conducted based on the theory that psychopaths yawn less often than non-psychopaths due to a lack of empathy.
It’s believed that those who connect with others are more likely to pick up on another person’s yawning habits, but if someone finds it challenging to bond… well their mouth may remain tightly shut.
Taking a team of 135 students to see where they fell on the ‘psychopath spectrum’, the team then placed electrodes on the students and monitored their reactions.
The students were shown a series of images including computer videos of people yawning, laughing, with the researchers monitoring how often respondents copies the actions of those on-screen.
Lead study author Brian Rundle noted that people who had less empathy were less likely to yawn when someone else did.
It might not indicate that they are psychopaths just yet, but Rundle argues that it is a pretty strong characteristic associated with psychopaths.
He added:
“We know that we’re not very likely to yawn in response to a stranger we don’t have empathetic connections with” but concludes that it’s a great start to measure people’s psychopathic tendencies.
So maybe don’t disown your friends just yet… but keep an eye on them.
H/T Cosmopolitan US
