Reflective Index

Is yawning contagious? Have you ever wondered why after seeing or hearing someone yawn, you most likely will catch the need to yawn not long after. Just thinking about someone yawning next to you could try trigger the need for you to yawn. It is because yawning is contagious. This phenomenon, experts have defined as allelomimetic behaviour of animals.

Allelomimetic (or allomimetic) behavior is a range of activities in which the execution of a behavior increases the probability of that behavior being performed by others nearby. Just like animals tend to follow the actions of other animals, humans (being higher animals) also tend to follow the actions of other humans.

However, because humans are social beings and typically more complex than animals, the phenomenon is more closely related to social mirroring, where organisms imitate the actions of others. According to Wikipedia, mirroring is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family, often going unnoticed by both parties.

Human beings are masters of copying. Even when we are not aware that we are doing it, we actually are. The tendency is higher when it involves people you care about, people you look up to or people you work and relate closely with.

It is not uncommon for lovers to pick up interests and preferences of their other halves. Or for protégés to try to speak and look like their mentors. Or for a coworker to fashion his reporting style after someone else's style in the office. Popular psychological theories suggest social mirroring represents trust and empathy, and often serves as an indicator of your special interest towards another individual.

As natural and harmless as this seems, there is always a dangerous side to it. In every single human, there is an embodiment of good and of evil. There is no such thing as an all-good or all-bad individual. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things. What makes a human good or evil is how well the human is able to keep the good radiating and the evil buried. What sets people apart to appear good is the decisions they choose to make, regardless of prevailing conditions around them.

Knowing this, it is important to note that decisions that we make, behaviours that we exhibit and the lifestyle that we live are constantly being copied by people around us who look up to us, care about us and relate closely with us. And unfortunately, we are unable to filter for them what to copy and what to ignore. Just like the yawn contagion, some people are more susceptible to copying than others. Some people do not have the ability to filter out bad behaviour and values. They just swallow everything so long as it is coming from a source they work with or they hold in some form of regard.

Sometimes when you question people about their actions, their only reason might be that they saw someone else doing the same thing. So they feel it is normal to behave that way, even if it is the wrong behaviour. Not because they cannot take responsibility for their own actions, it is simply because the human nature cannot help but mirror. Some people today are products of the examples they saw while growing up or from people around them that they look up to. Those who turned bad likely had nothing else but bad behaviour to look up to; and there would have been no way for them to tell what is bad and what is good.

You may be the only mirror that people look into for evaluation. You might be the only role model that people look up to for guidance and direction. You might be the only standard that people benchmark their own standards against. Do not be the reason why others are misled.

Let the good in you inspire others to be good examples even unto others.