PROJECT GUTS

Closeness with Friends and Family “Family  members  can  be  your  best  friends,  you  know.  And  best  friends,  whether  or  not  they  are  

related  to  you,  can  be  your  family.”  –  Trenton  Lee  Stewart  

INSTRUCTOR HANDBOOK

Session  Four:  3.5  hours  total,  including  breaks    Part  One:  Social  Science  30  minutes:  Read/Discuss:  “Do  We  Treat  Friends  and  Family  Differently?”  60  minutes:  Activity:  Design  a  Hypothesis      (Break)    Part  Two:  Computing    15-­‐20  minutes:  Modeling:  Build  Links  model  60-­‐75  minutes:  Activity:    Science  of  Friendship  model   Supplies:  

Laptops  or  computers  Large  graph  paper  Markers  or  sharpies  

 Student  Handouts:  Handout:  “Do  We  Treat  Friends  and  Family  Differently?”  Handout:  Hypothesis  

Models  from  NetLogo  Models  Library:  NetLogo  models  library,  curriculum  models,  Links        

PAGE 2 INSTRUCTOR HANDBOOK

Read/Discuss: “Do We Treat Friends and Family Differently?” 30 minutes

Read  and  discuss  similarities  and  differences  between  family  members  and  friends  while  considering  concepts  of  kin  selection  and  inclusive  fitness.  

Activity: Designing a Hypothesis, Part 1 35 minutes

Modeling: Build Links Model 15-20 minutes

Students  read  together  the  “Hypothesis”  handout.  Students  break  into  groups  of  about  3-­‐4  students  per  group  and  work  together  to  design  a  hypothesis.  After  brainstorming  research  questions  related  to  friends  and  family  relationships,  students  choose  a  single  hypothesis  that  will  guide  their  experimental  design.  They  write  their  research  question  and  hypothesis  on  a  large  post  it  or  on  the  board  and  are  prepared  to  discuss  a  possible  experiment  they  could  design  to  test  their  hypothesis.  

Activity: Designing a Hypothesis, Part 2 25 minutes

Students  build  a  model,  using  links  as  agents.  (See  Netlogo  models  library,  curriculum  models,  Links)  

 

Each  group  presents  their  research  question,  hypothesis  and  experiment  idea  to  the  class.  They  should  first  state  explicitly  their  research  question  and  hypothesis,  and  then  describe  an  experiment  they  could  design  to  test  their  hypothesis.  The  discussion  should  focus  on  what  makes  an  experiment  and  whether  the  experiment  will  test  their  prediction.    The  group  then  discusses  the  different  ideas—are  their  similarities?  differences?  How  might  the  experiments  allow  us  to  assess  casual  relationships  by  manipulating  only  one  variable  while  holding  everything  else  constant?    Students  agree  on  one  hypothesis  to  test  as  a  class.  Student  create  an  MTurk  Survey  to  test  their  hypothesis.  (see  sample  survey,  L6).  

PAGE 3 INSTRUCTOR HANDBOOK

Extensions

Guide  to  the  basics  of  experimental  design    http://liutaiomottola.com/myth/expdesig.html    NetLogo    Discuss  and  suggest  experiments  to  run  with  the  model  –  brainstorm  ideas,  focusing  on  experiments  to  collect  data  that  would  answer  a  question    Form  small  groups  for  final  projects,  begin  writing  up  proposed  changes  to  model  for  experiments  (begin  model  planning  form).  

 

Download  and  review  model  in  general  terms.  What  does  the  interface  show?  What  sliders  are  available?  What  do  the  monitors  and  graphs  show?  What  does  the  information  interface  say  about  the  purpose  of  the  model?    Create  four  small  groups  of  students.  Each  group  will  study  one  slider  including:  Where  is  it  created  and  called  in  the  code?  What  does  the  information  window  say  about  it?  Each  group  conducts  experiments  using  only  that  slider  and  determines  which  graphs  are  affected  and  how.  Groups  report  their  results  to  whole  group.        

 

Activity: Science of Friendship Model 60-75 minutes

 Our  friends  and  family  members  make  up  two  groups  of  people  that  we  tend  to  have  close  feelings  for.  These  groups  have  different  traits  that  characterize  our  relationships  with  them.  One  of  the  most  important  differences  is  that  we  get  to  choose  our  friends.  This  is  voluntary  association,  one  of  the  key  distinguishing  features  between  friends  and  family  members.        Another  key  difference  is  that  we  are  related  to  your  family.  In  most  cases,  this  means  that  we  share  some  amount  of  DNA  with  our  relatives.  Evolutionary  anthropologists  predict  that  this  sharing  of  genes  underlies  our  altruism  towards  family  members.  Called  kin  selection  theory,  it  means  that  one  way  we  can  spread  our  genes  is  by  helping  family  members  who  share  those  genes,  also  known  as  inclusive  fitness.        In  a  test  of  kin  selection  theory,  Howard  Rachlin  and  Bryan  Jones  used  their  social  discounting  experiment  to  test  for  whether  people  help  family  members  more  than  friends.  Their  results  showed  that  even  if  people  felt  the  same  level  of  closeness  between  a  friend  and  a  family  member,  they  were  willing  to  give  up  more  to  help  their  family  member.        Kin  selection  theory  also  predicts  differences  in  helping  family  members  at  different  levels  of  relatedness.  In  one  experiment,  Elainie  Madsen  and  colleagues  asked  participants  to  sit  in  a  painful  position;  the  longer  they  stayed  in  that  position,  the  more  money  a  relative  would  receive.  Researchers  found  that  the  more  DNA  the  participants  shared  with  their  relatives  (i.e.  the  closer  the  relatives),  the  more  time  they  spent  in  the  painful  position.      So,  while  we  often  feel  close  to  both  family  members  and  friends,  given  the  differences  between  these  two  relationship  types,  our  feelings  of  closeness  and  willingness  to  help  may  differ  between  these  two  groups  as  well.      

Background: Do we treat friends and family differently?

PROJECT GUTS

Student Handout 1 “Family  members  can  be  your  best  friends,  you  know.  And  best  friends,  whether  or  not  they  are  

related  to  you,  can  be  your  family.”  –  Trenton  Lee  Stewart  

PROJECT GUTS

Student Handout 1

Vocabulary    Kin  Selection  –  an  evolutionary  theory  about  a  strategy  where  an  organism  directs  helping  behavior  towards  kin  because  kin  share  similar  genes.    Inclusive  Fitness  -­‐  An  evolutionary  theory  that  suggests  the  fitness  of  an  organism  can  be  tied  to  others  who  share  similar  genes.  

PAGE 5 UNIT #: THE SCIENCE OF FRIENDSHIP

What  is  your  hypothesis?    A  hypothesis  is  an  educated  hunch  we  have  about  how  things  work.  It  can  come  from  an  existing  theory  or  it  can  come  from  our  own  experience.    One  hypothesis  our  lab  works  with  draws  from  evolutionary  theory,  stating  that  on  average,  people  should  be  more  willing  to  give  to  people  they  share  more  genes  with  (e.g.,  genetically  related  kin).  William  Hamilton  made  this  argument  about  all  biological  organisms  in  the  1960s,  and  many  researchers  have  examined  whether  his  kin  selection  hypothesis  applies  to  humans  specifically.    We  might  also  develop  a  hypothesis  from  our  own  experience.    For  example,  we  might  feel  we  are  more  likely  to  give  to  family  members,  regardless  of  our  genetic  relatedness  with  them  (in-­‐laws,  step-­‐siblings…).    We  would  then  test  whether  this  applies  to  a  wide  range  of  people  other  than  ourselves.    A  key  element  of  a  good  hypothesis  is  that  it  asks  how  some  outcome  will  change,  such  as  our  willingness  to  give,  if  we  change  a  condition,  such  as  whether  we  are  giving  to  a  stranger,  a  friend  or  a  family  member.    Testing  a  hypothesis  with  experiments:  What  are  the  conditions  we  will  assign  people  to?    To  test  a  hypothesis  using  an  experiment,  we  assign  some  people  to  one  condition  (e.g.  thinking  about  a  genetically  related  person)  and  some  people  to  another  condition  (e.g.  thinking  about  someone  we  are  not  genetically  related  to,  but  who  we  feel  equally  close  to).  One  important  feature  of  an  experiment  is  that  people  are  randomly  assigned  to  one  condition  or  the  other.  This  ensures  that  the  only  systematic  difference  between  the  two  groups  of  people  is  whether  they  were  exposed  to  condition  1  or  condition  2.    To  test  the  kin  selection  hypothesis  above,  we  might  assign  people  to  two  conditions:    (1)  think  of  a  genetically-­‐related  family  member  who  you  feel  particularly  close  to,  (2)  think  of  a  close  friend  who  you  feel  particularly  close  to.    We  could  then  ask  them  questions  about  sharing  or  helping-­‐-­‐like  we  have  used  in  previous  sessions.  Here  we  have  tried  to  make  the  conditions  very  similar  except  for  genetic  relatedness,  so  any  difference  we  see  between  the  conditions  should  arise  from  differences  in  genetic  relatedness.    Based  on  the  kin  selection  hypothesis,  we  would  expect  the  level  or  amount  of  sharing  to  be  greater  among  genetically-­‐related  kin  given  the  same  level  of  closeness.    What  would  be  another  condition  we  could  add  that  would  be  even  more  comparable  to  genetically  related  family  members?        

PAGE 6 UNIT #: THE SCIENCE OF FRIENDSHIP

In  your  group,  consider  the  following  as  you  frame  a  hypothesis  and  an  experiment.    1)  What  is  your  hypothesis?  (be  sure  to  include  the  outcome)  2)  What  are  the  conditions  you  will  assign  people  to?    

Vocabulary    Experimental  Design  –  an  orderly  procedure  carried  out  with  the  goal  of  verifying,  refuting,  or  establishing  the  validity  of  a  hypothesis.  Experiments  provide  insight  into  cause-­‐and-­‐effect  by  demonstrating  what  outcome  occurs  when  a  particular  factor  is  manipulated.    Control  Group  –  A  group  in  an  experiment  that  does  not  receive  the  manipulated  treatment  that  is  used  as  a  baseline  for  comparison.    Treatment  Group  –  A  group  in  an  experiment  that  receives  the  manipulated  treatment  and  compared  with  the  control  group.    Independent  Variable  –A  variable  that  is  manipulated  and  can  be  thought  of  as  the  cause.        Dependent  Variable  –  A  variable  that  is  measured  after  the  manipulation  and  is    thought  of  as  the  effect.