| dc.description.abstract | Past research studies have found that empathy seems to be related to both contagious
yawning and vicarious embarrassment, through empathy measurement scales being used,
along with overlap of brain regions found in fMRI studies. While empathy has been related to
both yawning and vicarious embarrassment in a number of studies, the three have yet to be
investigated together. This study will aim to investigate whether (a) more empathetic
individuals are more susceptible to contagious yawning; (b) empathetic individuals are more
susceptible to vicarious embarrassment; and (c) susceptibility to contagious yawning will
predict susceptibility to vicarious embarrassment.
Half of the participants watched a video of people yawning, observed by the researcher from
the other side of the room to count their yawns, then filled out vicarious embarrassment and
empathy tests. The second half watched the video from home, self-reporting their yawn
numbers along with the scales. The results were analysed with correlations and a multiple
regression, finding that vicarious embarrassment significantly predicted yawning numbers,
while the other hypotheses were not supported. | en |
