# psychopaths don't yawn?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-dont-yawn/76996>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 19, 2001, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-dont-yawn/76996 "2001-08-19T08:14:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-dont-yawn/76996/1 "2001-08-19T08:14:18Z")

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I recall hearing a few years ago that people with psychopathic mentalities don’t yawn. I couldn’t find anything on the net about this; does anyone have any info regarding this, or is it some old-wive’s tale? I’d hate to think I’ve been wasting my time pretending to yawn all these monthes.

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**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychopaths-dont-yawn/76996/2 "2001-08-19T10:08:53Z")

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Well, yawning is a reflex action that’s supposed to oxidize the blood really quickly (I think in order to keep the brain awake longer?) Perhaps a lot of psychopaths are more “on edge” (psychosis does that to people sometimes), and have adrenaline in their systems more often, and as such, their brains don’t start to “slow down” when they get tired.

It’s probably just an Old Wive’s Tale… but we all know that OWT’s are based (partially) in reality…

Just a thought.