Skinner's Law

Perhaps the most well-known behavioral psychologist in history is a man named BF Skinner. To complement Ivan Pavlov’s theories on Classical Conditioning, Skinner created a field called Operant Conditioning which is all about how you can use rewards and punishment to induce behavior change.

Fundamentally, Operant Conditioning has 4 ways of driving someone to take action:  

- Positive Reinforcement where you add something good or desirable 

- Negative reinforcement where you take away something bad so that it feels better

- Positive Punishment where you add something bad to create a more negative experience

- Negative Punishment where you take away something good so that the current condition feels worse

There are some fascinating and questionably ethical studies Skinner and his team conducted to draw these conclusions… But from the body of work emerged a really interesting insight called Skinner’s Law.

Essentially, you can make something so unpleasant not to do that it forces you to do it.

A lot of focus on behavior change goes on the side of offering incentives, which interacts with the motivational lever that is the pursuit of pleasure. But the far more powerful force for change is the avoidance of pain or discomfort. Skinner’s Law leverages exactly that, and you don’t need to take the concept to the far extreme where you’re imposing something so painful that it’s impossible to imagine not taking action.

For example, someone who wants to quit smoking cigarettes can use Skinner’s Law to their benefit. They can make a commitment that for every cigarette they smoke, they text their child “I just smoked a cigarette. Must mean I want to spend less time with you.”

If it sounds harsh and personal, it’s supposed to. You need to make it hurt.

Or for a salesperson who has a weekly commitment to put 10 hours into their prospecting. Every week they miss their commitment, they take 5% off of their commission check. Not doing the work means they make less money on the work they do, so there are real and significant consequences to not getting it done.

Skinner’s Law stings! And it’s not for everyone or everything. But at the very least, hopefully this awareness gives you insight into how the mind works and you can be more successful in the areas you care most about.