According to David Bornstein, an author with several published works dealing with solutions to social problems, infants have been used in a novel way to help teach empathy to young children. Bornstein relates that a neurobiologist has conducted “pioneering research into the effects of oxytocin, a hormone that has been linked with caring and trusting behavior, suspects that biology is playing a role in the program’s impact “. Being in the presence of an infant appears to have calming effects on the children and it is suspected that there may have a biological link to this response. Although untested, when exposed to an infant, children exhibit “a physiological state in which the children would be more social.”
Axelrod, Rise B.; Cooper, Charles
Axelrod, Rise B.; Cooper, Charles