Do cats catch human yawns?

Have you ever yawned because someone else has?

 

Are you yawning right now just thinking about yawning?

 

Yawns can be catching, and contagious yawning has been linked to the basic processes of empathy e.g. it has been shown to activate neural networks responsible for both social communication and empathy and correlate with empathy in humans.

 

Evidence of contagious yawning has been found in social animals such as budgerigars, rats and chimpanzees. In dogs contagious yawning has even been shown to occur across species - from humans to dogs. 

 

This study aims to examine whether cats are susceptible to contagious yawning from humans.