Mirroring Emotions

The ability to identify with and understand another person's situation, feelings, or motives is called empathy. Recent developments in neuroscience have focused on a system within the brain called "mirror neurons" as a likely explanation for emotional empathy.

In this lesson students explore emotions and the behavioral aspects of empathy through mirroring the emotions of other students while watching emotionally evocative videos.

NOVA ScienceNOW aired a segment on Mirror Neurons on January 25, 2005. View the video (14 minutes) and read a transcript and synopsis of the program at PBS.org.

Grade Level: 9-12

Lesson Length: 1 class period