哈欠为什么会传染人（打哈欠会传染女性间尤如此）

It’s a well-known fact that yawning is contagious and can spread around a room in a matter of seconds, but it turns out the phenomenon is more common among women.

众所周知，打哈欠是会传染的，一个房间里的人陆续打哈欠，也就是几秒的事儿。不过，有结果证明，这种传染在女性之间更为普遍。

During tests, researchers found that while men and women yawn spontaneously at equal rates, women are more likely to yawn in ’reply’ to another person’s yawn.

在测试过程中，研究人员发现，男人和女人自发地打哈欠时，相同频率下，女性更可能会受他人影响打哈欠。

Yawning in response to someone else is a recognised sign of empathy, which suggests that women are more empathetic and attuned to others than men.

回应别人的哈欠是个公认的移情标志。因此上面的结果表明，与男人相比，女性更加善解人意。

The research was carried out at Pisa University in Italy.

这项研究是在意大利的比萨大学进行的。

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the internal emotional states of others, and previous research has already shown that women are better at it than men.

移情是理解和分享他人内心情绪状态的能力，以前的研究已经表明，女性的移情能力要比男性更强。

For example, research has revealed women more often mimic the facial expressions of others, showing they are picking up on the other person’s state of mind.

例如研究发现，女性更经常模仿别人的面部表情，这表明她们正在揣摩别人的心理状态。

A team led by Elisabetta Palagi, set out to examine whether women are more likely to unconsciously mimic another person’s yawning.

伊丽莎白?帕拉吉带领的团队，对女性是否“更可能无意识地模仿另一个人打哈欠”进行了研究。

To test their theory, the experts secretly observed people in hundreds of work and social situations over a period of five years.

为了检验他们的理论，专家们在五年时间里，秘密观察了数百名不同工作背景和社会环境的人。

They particularly noted if subjects ’returned’ another person’s yawn within three minutes.

他们特别注意受试者是否会在三分钟内对他人的哈欠做出回应。

The authors, writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, defined yawning scientifically as ’an involuntary sequence of mouth opening, deep inspiration, brief apnoea [stopping breathing] and slow expiration’.

研究结果发布在《皇家社会开放科学》杂志上。作者把哈欠科学地定义为“先张口，深吸气，简短的无呼吸状态[呼吸暂停]，然后慢慢的呼气”这样一个不由自主的过程。

While they said men and women yawned spontaneously at equal rates, they discovered that once someone had yawned, female participants were more likely to yawn as well.

虽然研究人员称男人和女人打哈欠的自发率相同，但他们也发现，一旦有人打了个哈欠，女性更容易跟着打哈欠。

Explaining why they think women are more likely to unconsciously mimic somebody else’s sleepiness, the researchers said that having a close emotional bond with the ’trigger’ yawner – if they are friends or relations - makes a person more likely to pick up on their mood than that of a stranger.

在解释为什么认为女性更可能会无意识地模仿别人的哈欠时，研究人员表示，如果你与最先打哈欠的人有亲密的情感关系——比如打哈欠的人是你的朋友或亲戚，你就会比一个陌生人更容易理解他们的心情。

The rates of contagion were significantly lower between acquaintances than between friends and family members, and significantly higher in women than in men.

熟人之间的接触传染率明显低于朋友与家庭成员之间的接触传染率，而女性之间的接触传染率又明显高于男性。

The phenomenon has been seen in other social animals, such as chimps, dogs and wolves.

在其他群居动物（如黑猩猩、狗和狼）身上，研究人员也发现了这种现象。