If You Yawn A Lot, You're Probably More Intelligent Than Everyone Else

Yawns are so weird. They're contagious. In fact, within the first few seconds of writing this article I've already yawned twice. Am I knackered? Maybe. Am I bored? No. Weirdly, there's a third option. It could mean that I'm a genius.

A new study reckons that the length of your yawn correlates to how heavy your brain is and how many neurons it has.

The study itself doesn't exactly sound very scientific as the researchers watched YouTube clips of various different animals yawning and measured their yawns. They watched videos of cats, dogs, gorillas, foxes, camels, hedgehog, horses, rats, chimpanzees and more, according to Independent.

By doing this, they deducted that the longest yawners were humans. Our brains weigh an average of three pounds which, in the animal kingdom, is pretty bloody hefty.

After us came chimpanzees, horses and camels. Those on the other end of the spectrum were mice, rabbits and rats. Soz to them.

Andrew Gallup, evolutionary psychologist and one of the study's researchers, wrote in Academic Minute: "When you yawn, your gaping jaw increases circulation to your skull, pumping warm blood out of your brain.

"At the same time, inhaling deeply brings a wave of air into your nasal and oral cavities, cooling cranial arteries through convection. These two processes dissipate heat in much the same way that a radiator cools a car engine."

So we can deduce that the longer you yawn, the more intelligent you are.

Okay I've yawned six times writing this article now, this is getting a bit annoying. Can MENSA just sign me up now?

Did you know that it's widely believed that psychopaths are immune to contagious yawning? Researchers at Baylor University got hold of 135 subjects and got them to take the Psychopathic Personality Invertory-Revised (PPI-R) and then exposed them to a contagious yawn experiment. The less empathetic a subject was, the less likely they were to yawn. Being coldhearted is something that is commonly attributed to psychopaths.

Who knew yawns were so interesting?

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Mel Ramsay

Mel Ramsay has been a Senior Journalist for Tyla and LADbible since 2015. She started her career writing obituaries and funeral guides online. Since then, her work has been published in a wide variety of national and local news sites. She is part of the BBC's Generation project and has spoken about young people, politics and mental health on television, radio and online. Contact her - [email protected]

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