Bad behaviour is habit forming when rewarded

B.F. Skinner was a prominent American psychologist and behaviourist who pioneered the science of behaviourism. He was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and died on August 18, 1990, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 to 1974, and he wrote 21 books and 180 articles on various topics related to psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.

He said the quote in a book titled Beyond Freedom and Dignity, which was published in 1971. The book was a controversial critique of the concepts of human freedom, dignity, and democracy and a proposal for a new social order based on scientific principles of behavioural control. Skinner argued that human behaviour is determined by environmental factors, such as rewards and punishments, rather than by internal traits like free will, personality, or values. He claimed that human problems, such as violence, crime, poverty, and war, could be solved by applying behaviour modification methods, such as operant conditioning, to shape and reinforce desirable behaviours.

Skinner’s view was that habits are formed by the repeated association of behaviour with its consequences. He believed that behaviours that are followed by positive outcomes, such as pleasure, satisfaction, or utility, are more likely to be repeated and become habitual, while behaviours that are followed by negative outcomes, such as pain, frustration, or loss, are more likely to be avoided and extinguished. He also suggested that habits can be changed by altering the contingencies of reinforcement, that is, by changing the rewards or punishments that follow a behaviour. He advocated for the use of positive reinforcement, rather than punishment, as a more effective and humane way of shaping behaviour.

The quote implies that bad habits, such as smoking, overeating, or gambling, are difficult to break because they reward the person who performs them, such as stress relief, taste, or excitement. The quote challenges the notion that bad habits are a matter of personal choice or moral weakness and instead proposes that they are a product of the environment and can be modified by changing the environment.