The Evidence on Friendship: teacher key

Making Friends, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Researchers have measured friendship in hours, in conversations and even in the brain. The research covers how many hours friendships take, why people misjudge how much others like them, what a brain scanner and a decades-long study found, and how the skills of friendship begin in early childhood.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. In the Kansas study, which counted more toward friendship?
   • Hours spent hanging out and joking around (answer)
   • Hours spent working together
   • Hours at school
2. What did the Harvard researchers find about relationships and longevity?
   • Genetics mattered more than relationships
   • Satisfaction with relationships in midlife mattered more than genetics (answer)
   • Only close family mattered
3. In the liking gap studies, how did people judge their conversation partners' liking?
   • They overestimated it
   • They guessed correctly
   • They underestimated it (answer)
4. What can be inferred from the roommates study about the liking gap?
   • It lasts for months, so time alone does not erase it (answer)
   • It disappears after one day
   • It only affects strangers
5. What does the word hypothesis mean?
   • A proposed explanation (answer)
   • A kind of experiment
   • A list of names

Words

• acquaintance: slightly known
• hypothesis: best explanation
• confidant: trusted listener
• reciprocal: give-and-take
• longevity: long life