June 04, 2021

Negative reinforcement is why we are wearing masks & getting people vaccinated, but what if the government used positive reinforcement instead?

19 minutes

Is masking wearing an example of human behavior being motivated by negative reinforcement? What if the government made better use of positive reinforcement to motivate people to get vaccinated? Annie looks at the current state of our COVID-impacted lives from the point of view of a reward-based, science-based dog trainer.

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Partial Transcript:

[music and intro]

Annie:

Hi. So I just wanted to share some dog training point of view type thoughts I’ve been having about the current state of our COVID/quarantining/social distancing world, which I think is, overall, I think we’re coming out of the most difficult part of this period. At least I hope so. And it raises some interesting behavioral, I dunno, problems, questions, I guess, that I’ve been thinking about in terms of dog training.

Firstly, I’ve been thinking about masks and why people are still wearing masks. I actually was listening to an episode of All of It with Alison Stewart which I listened to pretty frequently on WNYC on this topic. And I almost called in, and then I hesitated because I always… I always wonder if people might roll their eyes, if I say, Hey, I’m a dog trainer, and this is what I think in dog training terms.

But if you’re tuning into my podcast, I guess you do want to hear a dog trainer thinks about this situation in terms of human behavior! Anyway, in the segment with Alison people were saying some things that I hadn’t even thought of about why they continue wearing masks.

Some were saying that it’s helped with their allergies. It’s helped them not get sick in general. Some have said that they enjoy the kind of anonymity it gives them on the street. Overall, I think most people are wearing masks if they are still wearing masks, because sort of like better safe than sorry. Easier to wear a mask than to deal with being potentially fatally sick because you did not wear a mask. And it’s relatively easy thing to do.

It’s not a behavior that requires a massive amount of effort to engage in and it can keep others from harassing you on the street. Although, of course, that can go both ways. Some people are annoyed when people are around them wearing masks, and some people are annoyed when they’re not wearing masks.

Overall. However, I think it’s a really good example of negative reinforcement at work. Negative reinforcement is negative not because it’s bad, but because it involves the removal of something. And a reinforcement is when a behavior is encouraged.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast

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