• Calculate a confidence interval for the difference in proportions of two groups.
• Make conclusions based on a confidence interval.

Is Yawning Contagious?

The objective of this analysis is to explore the proportion of people who yawn after seeing someone else yawn. We will use data^[1] from an experiment conducted on the television show Mythbusters.

In the experiment, 50 participants were randomly assigned to two groups:

• Treatment (34 participants), who saw a person near them yawn
• Control (16 participants), who didn’t see anyone yawn

All of the participants were instructed to wait in a room, and the experimenters recorded whether or not the participants yawned. The participants arrived at different times, so no two participants were in the waiting room at the same time.

For the 34 participants in the treatment group, 10 participants yawned and 24 participants didn’t.

For the 16 participants in the control group, 4 participants yawned and 12 participants didn’t.

[Trouble viewing? Click to open in a new tab.]

---