April 6, 2016

April 6, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In “Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior” (2009) Strand writes “religious behavior resembles instinctual behavior – it is responsive to antecedents in the apparent absence of reinforcement. This explains why attempts to punish religious behavior may have the paradoxical effect of increasing it.” Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), two ways of talking, which involve the expression of positive or negative emotions, are, of course, instinctual behaviors! This author doesn’t think that punishment, the decrease of SVB, is the real problem. Although SVB is often punished and not reinforced, people need to get along and therefore still continue SVB. 

NVB appears to be like religious behavior, in that it is increased by attempts to punish it. When persecution of religion “takes the form of threat of death” it stimulates “verbal behavior concerning immortality.” When NVB, on the other hand, is threatened, it often leads to grandiose claims of power. In the face of threat, people who want to hang on to NVB, basically pretend as if they are God. Infatuation with one’s own belief is also often seen in those  afflicted with mental disorders (hyper-religiosity only being one of them).

As long as punishment remains our preferred mode of behavioral control, we will see an increase in mental disorders, religious fanaticism, divisiveness, despotism, and, of course, NVB, which is how implement coercive behavioral control. Why do we reinforce NVB and why do we punish SVB? We know how to reinforce NVB, but we don’t know how to reinforce it SVB. Once we know how to reinforce SVB, we will gain control of our instinctual behavior. Instinctual behavior is giving us trouble as we believe it is determined by consequences, when, in fact, it is only sensitive to antecedents. Like religious behavior, the SVB and NVB patterns of responsiveness, are “consistent with schedule-induced behavior” (Segal, 1972). Thus, the response classes SVB and NVB are NOT socially mediated, but are “evoked by certain antecedents” while they are at the same time “unresponsive to tangible reinforcement.” Our sound is the antecedent which determines if we will have SVB or NVB.