Skinner’s Quote of the Day

We change the relative strengths of responses by differential reinforcement of alternative courses of action; we do not change something called a preference. (pp. 94-95)

We change the way a person looks at something, as well as what he sees when he looks, by changing the contingencies; we do not change some­thing called perception. (p.…

Beliefs, preferences, perceptions, needs, purposes, and opinions are other possessions of autonomous man which are said to change when we change minds. What is changed in each case is a…

By manipulating environmental contingencies, one makes changes which are said to indicate a change of mind, but if there is any effect, it is on behavior. (p.92)

It is fortunate that those who object to the manipula­tion of behavior feel free to manipulate minds, since otherwise they would have to remain silent. (p. 92)

It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behavior nevertheless make the most vigorous efforts to manipulate minds. (p. 91)

Dependence on things is not independence. The child who does not need to be told that it is time to go to school has come under the control of more…

A method of modifying behavior without appearing to exert control is represented by Socrates' metaphor of the midwife: one person helps another give birth to be­havior. (p. 84)

To refuse to control is to leave control not to the person himself, but to other parts of the social and non-social environments. (p. 84)

The genetic sources of human behavior are particu­larly useful in exoneration . . . If men make war because they are by nature aggressive, we need not be ashamed of…

Although people object when a scientific analysis traces their behavior to external conditions and thus deprives them of credit and the chance to be admired, they seldom object when the…

The concept of responsibility is particularly weak when behavior is traced to genetic determiners. We may admire beauty, grace, and sensitivity, but we do not blame a person because he…

A person does not act because he "feels angry"; he acts and feels angry for a common reason, not specified. (p. 72)

What a person "intends to do" depends upon what he has done in the past and what has then happened. (p. 72)

The individual tells himself what to do and what not to do, and it is easy to lose sight of the fact that he has been taught to do so…

It is commonly said that the control becomes inter­nalized, which is simply another way of saying that it passes from the environment to autonomous man, but what happens is that…

A state which converts all its citizens into spies or a religion which promotes the concept of an all-seeing God makes escape from the punisher practically impossible, and punitive contingencies…

Under a "perfect" system no one needs goodness . . . The problem is to induce people not to be good but to behave well. (p. 67)

The trouble is that when we punish a person for behav­ing badly, we leave it up to him to discover how to behave well, and he can then get credit…

The so-called "dynamisms" of Freud are said to be ways in which repressed wishes evade the censor and find expres­sion, but they can be interpreted simply as ways in which…

Whether the effect is felt as shame, guilt, or a sense of sin depends upon whether the punishment is administered by parent or peer, by a government, or by a…

Punishment is designed to remove awkward, dangerous, or otherwise unwanted behavior from a repertoire on the assumption that a person who has been punished is less likely to behave in…

. . . the curious fact is that those who defend free­dom and dignity are not only not opposed to [punitive] meas­ures but largely responsible for the fact that they…

The word punishment is usually confined to contingencies intentionally arranged by other people, who arrange them because the results are reinforcing to them. (p. 61)

Punishment is very common in nature, and we learn a great deal from it. (p. 60)

Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are. (p. 60)

Freedom—or, rather, behavior which “feels free”—is also the product of a history of conditioning. (p. 53)

We may condition a man to behave in virtuous ways as we condition animals to behave according to any set of specifications, but such a man will not [according to…

That [a scientific analysis of human behavior] will be simpler, more expedient, and more useful will not necessarily mean its adaptation, because the older view served other than scientific functions.…

As plausible connections with external variables are demonstrated . . . , the need for inner explanations is reduced. An effective scientific analysis would presumably dispense with them altogether. (p.…

Where a scientific analysis shows that we react in a given way because similar actions in our past have had particular consequences, the mentalist may insist that we act because…

. . . where a scientific analysis relates behavior to the physical environment, the mentalist may insist that the mind observes only a none-too-reliable copy of the environment called subjective…

. . . more and more of the behavior of organisms, including man, is being plausibly related to events in their genetic and environmental histories. If other sciences are any…

We cannot predict the success or failure of a cultural invention with the same accuracy as we do that of a physical invention. It is for this reason that we…

There is very little personal reimbursement for the most profitable ideas of modern science. (p. 48)

The scientist is usually concerned with the control of nature apart from his personal aggrandizement. (p. 48)

Our apparatus was designed by the organism we study, for it was the organism which led us to choose a particular manipulandum, particular categories of stimulation, particular modes of reinforcement,…

It is easier for the teacher to control the student by threatening punishment than by using positive reinforcement with its deferred, though more powerful, effects. (p. 46)

The behavior of a child born into a flourishing society is shaped and maintained by variables, most of which are arranged by other people. (p. 43)

By far the greater part of behavior develops in the individual through processes of conditioning, given a normal biological endowment. (p. 43)

In general, the evolution of man has emphasized modifiability rather than the transmission of specific forms of behavior. (p. 43)

Inherited patterns of behavior must have been selected by their contributions to survival in ways which are not unlike those in which the behavior of the individual is selected or…

Contingencies of reinforcement are similar to what we might call contingencies of survival. (p. 42)

The experimental study of reinforcing contingencies is nothing more than a nonteleological analysis of the directed effects of behavior, of relations which have traditionally been described as purpose. (pp. 41-42)

Our present understanding of the so-called “contingencies of reinforcement” is undoubtedly incomplete, but it nevertheless permits us to construct new forms of behavior, to bring behavior under the control of…

We try to gain addi­tional credit for ourselves by concealing the reasons why we behave in given ways or by claiming to have acted for less powerful reasons. (p. 58)

Science naturally seeks a fuller explanation of . . . behavior; its goal is the destruc­tion of mystery. (p. 58)

A scientific conception seems demeaning because nothing is eventually left for which autonomous man can take credit. (p. 58)

It is in the nature of scientific progress that the functions of autonomous man be taken over one by one as the role of the environ­ment is better understood. (p.…

We are likely to object to (and resent) being told that we are imitating an ad­mired person, or repeating merely what we have heard someone say or have read in…