Close friends and family are more likely than acquaintances or strangers to catch someone yawning, Livescience.com reported.

据热点科学网站报道，一项新的研究表明，一个人如果打了一个哈欠，他的亲密朋友和家人比其他人或陌生人更容易跟着打。

A new study suggests this yawning contagion¹ is, in part, the result of empathy, in which we attempt to see things from another person's angle and respond to that person's emotions.

研究者称，这种打哈欠的传染，部分是由于共感作用，也就是说，我们试图去从对方的角度看待问题，并对对方的情绪做出回应。

While yawns do not seem to have a connection with any particular emotion (unlike, say, smiles, which could indicate happiness), in some ways we are forming an emotional connection by mimicking² a yawn, Matthew Campbell of Emory University said.

埃默里大学的马修·坎贝尔认为，哈欠似乎不与任何一种特殊的情绪相关，所以在某种程度上，我们通过跟着对方打哈欠，或其它的表达方式，来形成一种情绪上的共鸣。

By mimicking the yawn we become better able to understand how tired, perhaps, or bored the other person is.

通过跟着对方打哈欠，我们能更好地理解和感觉对方有多辛苦，或者说多无聊。