Minds, Brains and Giving: teacher key

Kindness, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. What studies of rats, bats, apes, toddlers and hormones say about empathy and helping, and where researchers still disagree.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What is thought to be one foundation of how emotion moves between people?
   • Sleep
   • Mimicry (answer)
   • Music
2. What does having empathy not always mean?
   • That a person is tired
   • That a person is quiet
   • That a person will want to help (answer)
3. How is kindness most often taught?
   • By parents, through observation and some direct teaching (answer)
   • By screens alone
   • By strangers only
4. Why did the authors judge the free rat unlikely to be opening the door just to end alarm calls?
   • The rats were deaf
   • Alarm calls were rare in the rat study (answer)
   • The door was open
5. What have nasal oxytocin studies been criticized for?
   • Using too few dogs
   • Costing too much
   • Sprays may not produce behavioral effects (answer)
6. How far did cooperative behavior spread in the experiments?
   • Up to three degrees of separation (answer)
   • One step
   • Twenty steps

Words

• empathy: sharing feelings
• mimicry: copying
• oxytocin: a hormone
• bystanders: onlookers