Regardless, contagious yawning is widespread in the animal kingdom and still poorly understood. In this latest study, researchers wanted to take things a step further and see whether the strange phenomenon could occur not just between species, but between living beings and machines. Yawning robot made chimps want to get ready for bedThe researchers began the experiment by creating a life-sized silicon human head equipped with a motorized, movable mouth. Though the exact reason the chimpanzees “caught” the robot’s yawn remains unclear, the researchers offer a few theories. Alternatively, the yawning robot may have triggered an “automatic perception-action coupling mechanism” in the chimps, causing them to yawn involuntarily.