Napa Valley RegisteR NEWS HOliDay eDitiON • NOVeMBeR 22-23, 2023 | A3

Experts: Giving thanks is in our DNA

MADDIE BURAKOFF showing that reciprocity case, finding a key to un-
Associated Press might not be about keeping lock a box of stickers — they
NEW YORK — It’s the exact scores, but forming were more likely to share
season of giving thanks — broader emotional ties. their sticker reward with a
and it turns out humans Though we can’t “speak new person.
have been doing it for a long, chimp” well enough to It’s that kind of behav-
long time. know if they’re actually say- ior that shows gratitude is
As more researchers dig ing thanks, Suchak added, it more than simple exchange,
into the science of grat- makes sense that some form Schnitker said. It can make
itude, they’ve found the of this social debt showed us more generous with other
feeling likely played a key up early in our lineage. people in general — even if
role in helping our ancestors “It didn’t just pop out they didn’t help us first.
band together and survive. of nowhere when humans Giving thanks might be
That legacy continues evolved,” Suchak said. good for you, too: A 2016
today, as being in the mood study found that people
for gratitude shapes who And how we stayed who wrote letters of grati-
we are as a species and how grateful tude reported better mental
we connect with the people health and saw changes in
around us. Thousands of years later, their brain activity — even
“This is something that gratitude has taken root in months down the line.
is part of our human DNA,” humans. But Nelson pointed out
said Sarah Schnitker, a psy- Studies have found grat- that recognizing the giver,
chologist at Baylor Univer- itude may show up in a not just the gift, is key.
sity. “It is a glue, in a sense, few spots in our genes and So, if Thanksgiving has
that holds us together.” brains — including ones you in a mood for grati-
JOEL ANDREWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
linked to social bonding, tude, she suggested focus-
How we got grateful A student places her handprint along with those of other students in November 2005 at a feeling reward and seeing ing on thanking the people
Humans are social an- school in Lufkin, Texas. other people’s point of view. in your life, rather than just
imals. That’s how we’ve And the feeling emerges making “gratitude lists” of
lasted so long; not by being The animal kingdom has Some scientists think is very, very primal and very early on: Children as young the stuff you have. This is
the biggest or the strongest, some parallel give-and- the feeling of gratitude important to a cooperative as 2 and 3 demonstrate they more in line with why the
but by figuring out how to take behaviors, said Malini evolved to keep the helping society,” Nelson said. “Oth- want to return favors, said feeling evolved in the first
work together. Suchak, an animal behav- exchanges going. In other erwise, you just get a culture Amrisha Vaish, who stud- place, she said.
A key part of building re- ior researcher at Canisius words, if you were helped, of takers.” ies moral development at “It’s not just about stuff
lationships is the idea of rec- University. In experiments you’d feel like you should In animals and in hu- the University of Virginia. and materialism,” Nelson
iprocity: “If you like me and with capuchin monkeys and repay the debt with a good mans, these aren’t always At age 4, children also show said. “It’s about relation-
do nice things for me, then I chimpanzees, Suchak found deed in return, said Jenae one-to-one transactions. a tendency to “pay it for- ships, and the things that
like you and do nice things for the primates became more Nelson, who researches Sometimes, an ape that ward,” she added. people do for you, and then
you,” saidMichaelTomasello, willing to help out a partner gratitude at Baylor and Har- gets groomed by another In a study, Vaish found the things that you can in
a developmental psycholo- if that individual had helped vard universities. will later back that partner that when kids got help turn do back for other peo-
gist at Duke University. them in the past. “This give and take — this up in a fight, Suchak said, completing a task — in this ple.”

AI
From A1

deciding which government to

implement, and learning how to
“rule” within that government,
has been really fun.
After forming a government,
the story truly begins to develop,
diverging in each class period
based on the structure its stu-
dents chose. Trott told ChatGPT
to create a story on Mars that
mimicked the Revolutionary War
era from 1775 to 1783, then refine
that story further based on each
class period’s government.
The stories differentiated even
more when students were tasked
with choosing sides. Would they
join the rebellion — agitating for
Martian self-rule — or stay loyal
to the American government mil-
lions of miles away?
Trott explained that this activ-
ity was designed to reflect early
American settlers’ dilemma.
Those who chose to create loyalist
propaganda would get extra credit
if they won the classroom “war.” If
they lost, members of the newly
independent Martian government
would decide their punishment.
“It is supposed to mimic real
life,” Trott explained. “For those
who chose to stay loyal to the NICK OTTO PHOTOS, REGISTER
British, there was something in Redwood Middle School history teacher Stephanie Trott is using ChatGPT and its AI capabilities to simulate prewar scenarios on Mars for eighth-grade
it for them. Those who chose not students.
to were looking at more of the
whole.”
Trott gave students an assign-
ment to create propaganda based
on the side they chose. She then
wrote a rubric for ChatGPT, which
determined what level of effec-
tiveness each piece of propaganda
could have had.
“I gave Chat the same rubric I
gave the kids, which was: ‘Does it
use powerful language?’ ‘Are there
similarities to (the work of) Paul
Revere and Thomas Paine?’ So
again, trying to like the past and
what they were using,” Trott said.
Based on those assessments,
the AI gave her an estimate of how
that propaganda would affect a
model population’s beliefs. In Redwood Middle School teacher Stephanie Trott, wearing a Star Trek-style Eighth graders in Stephanie Trott’s Redwood Middle School class followed
second period, 50% of the hypo- top in the classroom, leads her eighth-grade history class in a Martian a simulation of pre-revolutionary conditions on Mars in a scenario
thetical colonists remained with prewar scenario assisted by the artificial intelligence app ChatGPT. developed using ChatGPT.
the loyalists, while 30% joined the
patriots. The other 20% decided — be effective. theme your class is studying, she Trott has found that she can be paganda, it’s not like I think (what
to stay neutral. One of the biggest challenges explained. more creative in her lesson plan- ChatGPT predicts) is exactly what
“This class had the most effec- has been learning how to integrate Trott has caught students in her ning with the help of artificial in- would happen. It was just a help-
tive propaganda, so their patriots the new opportunities AI creates classes using it on assignments. telligence tools. ful tool for me to have something
have the best odds at victory,” into her pre-existing lessons. But as she’s gotten to know the “So much of planning takes outside of me to critique it.”
Trott explained. “Matching up our study of the tool, she’s also gotten better at hours, so as a teacher, it helps me Trott said it can’t replace grad-
After the students were in- American Revolution with this picking up when it has been used. create projects that I think are go- ing either, at least not to her stan-
formed of their propaganda’s ef- project has been a challenge, since “Chat is very generic in the way ing to be engaging for students in dards. She said that similarly to
fectiveness, the loyalists and pa- it’s the first year I am doing it. I it writes, so it’s become really ap- less time,” she said. its writing style, the assessments
triots prepared for a fierce battle feel like I have already learned so parent when a kid submits some- If Trott were to write up a Rev- it produces can be generic, and
(of dice rolling). The first side to much,” she said, adding there is a thing (if they use it),” she said. olutionary War-themed story frankly “a little too easy.”
generate 30 sixes would win the definite learning curve. “If we talked about these specific set on Mars, it would have taken Ultimately, Trott believes that
first battle of the war. In addition, Trott said she rec- things in class and I’m not seeing hours she could otherwise spend like it or not, AI will make its way
The Americans — aka the loyal- ognizes the limitations and po- that anywhere in the writing, (I grading, meeting with students, into education. Used well, she
ists — ultimately came out on top tential negative impacts. know). If you’re kind of in tune and actually teaching. It wouldn’t thinks it can be an asset.
in a nail-biter. But the war, and the “It’s a very insecure, vulnera- with its writing, there’s a generic have been feasible. “I’m scared to introduce it (to
assignment, aren’t over yet. ble position. I’m like, ‘My God, it’s quality that’s pretty easy to see.” However, she was able to ask students) in the classroom,” she
Trott said that learning how kind of like eliminating the need She also said that in the same ChatGPT to create a story that said “… But honestly, it’s going to
to utilize AI in the classroom has for kids to think,’” she said. ways it can be harmful — pull- paralleled pre-revolutionary co- happen, because this is where it’s
been a fun, but challenging pro- You can ask ChatGPT to write ing quotes on command, writing lonial America in no time at all. all going.”
cess. She said although it’s the an essay about the American narrative stories quickly, solving And yet ...
first year she’s used it, she already Revolution. You can have it pull complex word problems and more “It’s like any predictive tool … You can reach reporter Katie
feels like she’s learned so much up quotes from novels that elicit — it can also be helpful, especially it’s not perfect, there’s some po- DeBenedetti at kdebenedetti@
about the ways it can — and can’t a certain feeling, or relate to a for teachers. etic license there. With the pro- napanews.com or 650-727-7598.
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