Helpers in the Wild and the Lab: teacher key

Kindness, grade 6 edition, written for 6th grade. Studies of children, chimpanzees, rats, bats, elephants and dogs, and what kind acts do for the person who gives.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What happened to toddlers in the control conditions?
   • They always helped
   • They rarely helped (answer)
   • They left the room
2. What did a rat do first as often as it opened a container of chocolate?
   • Sleep
   • Climb a wall
   • Free its trapped cagemate (answer)
3. What did free rats share with a freed cagemate about half of the time?
   • Chocolate chips (answer)
   • Toys
   • Water
4. What may helping a cagemate be for a rat, researchers think?
   • Boring
   • Rewarding (answer)
   • Scary
5. What seems to work better than repeating the same kind act?
   • Doing it faster
   • Doing it alone
   • Doing a variety of kind acts (answer)
6. What changed workers' happiness in the bonus study?
   • How they spent the money (answer)
   • How big the bonus was
   • What day it was

Words

• empathy: sharing feelings
• cagemate: cage companion
• console: comfort
• comfort: calm down
• primate: ape or monkey