March 24, 2016

March 24, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

This writer read the paper “Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior” by Paul Strand (2009) and decided to comment on this paper with the Constantia font. In the abstract this writer noticed something, which immediately spoke to him. Strand writes “that a class of religious behaviors exists that is induced, for prepared organisms, by specific stimuli that are experienced according to a response-independent schedule” (italics by this writer). By saying nice things and by being friendly, we use response-independent reinforcers to build rapport or strengthen our relationships. This refers to increasing the amount of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) instances in our verbal episodes. In SVB we exchange positive emotions. Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), by contrast, is characterized by the absence of such niceties. 

If the listeners to a NVB speaker would pay attention to what they are actually feeling (something they are not very inclined to), they would acknowledge that the NVB speaker induces negative emotions in them. Interestingly, Strand identifies two “minimal units out of which functional behavior may arise.” The two classes of religious behavior he identifies are: “non-operant schedule-induced behaviors and operant behaviors.” 

Strand mentions that religious many scholars and philosophers have described the “non-operant schedule-induced behavior” as  “graceful” and “operant behaviors”  as “effortful.” This description matches perfectly with SVB and NVB. SVB is an effortless way of speaking, which is effortlessly understood by the listener. NVB, on the other hand, is effortful for both the speaker and the listener. According to Strand’s analysis then, SVB is a non-operant schedule-induced behavior while NVB is an operant behavior. 

Reading of this paper made this writer think of spoken communication as a religious experience. Almost everyone who was introduced to the SVB/NVB distinction has said that SVB made them feel like and think of having a religious experience, while NVB made them deny or long for having such an experience.  Also this writer would say he experiences SVB as a religious behavior, but he doesn’t find spirituality in NVB. He has never thought that his strong urge to pursue exploration of SVB was a religiously motivated behavior. Only now does he suddenly realize that his intense objection against NVB was religiously motivated. This writer was raised in a Catholic family and community, in which the foundation for SVB was conditioned.