contagious yawning

The NYT on yawn contagion. A scientist argues that the fact that you want to yawn when others around you do is a sign of your empathy. More empathetic people yawn more often.
I don’t buy it. I’m sticking with my own longheld theory, first developed when I was about 12. To wit: Yawning’s main side effect is that it increases blood flow (and, with it, the flow of oxygen) to the brain. More blood flow increases thinking ability.
So, given the fact that you want to yawn when your neighbor does, there must be something about witnessing a yawn — or thinking about a yawn — that requires greater blood flow to the brain. My conclusion: A yawn must be the deepest, most profound thing a human can contemplate. Merely being confronted with the mental concept overtaxes the brain, rendering its current level of oxygen too low to contemplate such profundities — which then necessitates a yawn to bring the system full circle.
It seemed like a cool idea when I was 12, and I’m sticking to it.