Sublime

An inspiration engine for ideas

AllPeopleCollectionsArticlesAudioBooksFilesHighlightsImagesLinksNotesTextTweetsVideosSocial

Skinner’s three key insights — immediate rewards work better than delayed, unpredictable rewards work better than fixed, and conditioned rewards work better than primary — were found to also apply to humans, and in the 20th Century would be used by businesses to shape consumer behavior. From Frequent Flyer loyalty points to mystery toys in McDonald... See more

Gurwinder • Why Everything Is Becoming a Game

We now live in a world dominated by technologies based on B. F. Skinner’s vision of how the human mind works. His insight—that you can train living creatures to desperately crave arbitrary rewards—has

Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again

Walden Two (Hackett Classics)

B. F. Skinner

Behaviorist theory, derived from work with laboratory animals, is indirectly responsible for such programs as piece-work pay for factory workers, stock options for top executives, special privileges accorded to Employees of the Month, and commissions for salespeople

Alfie Kohn • Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work

B. F. Skinner, the world-famous psychologist, proved through his experiments that an animal rewarded for good behavior will learn much more rapidly and retain what it learns far more effectively than an animal punished for bad behavior. Later studies have shown that the same applies to humans. By criticizing, we do not make lasting changes and ofte... See more

Dale Carnegie • How To Win Friends and Influence People

We are a society of loyal Skinnerians, unable to think our way out of the box we have reinforced ourselves into.

Alfie Kohn • Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

Skinner noted that parental attention is a powerful reinforcer, and that parents can, by being slow to respond to polite requests, unwittingly train their children to be annoying and pushy.

Brian Christian • The Alignment Problem

Other social media platforms followed, leveraging Skinner’s three laws to maximize button-pecking. They offered immediate reinforcement in the form of instant responses, conditioned reinforcement in the form of “likes” and “followers”, and unpredictable reinforcement that varied with each post and each refresh of the page. These features turned soc