Out of the Lab: Shaping an Ecological and Constructional Cultural Systems Science

Measuring the Dissemination Impact of Culturo-Behavioral Science

Culturo-behavior science addresses many of the world's most significant problems and therefore has potential to create world-changing outcomes. Before systems level changes that improve the world can be implemented, however, it is first necessary for the public to know about and take interest in the accomplishments of culturo-behavior science. Measurable evidence that this kind of influence is being achieved is a component of "dissemination impact," an important but often overlooked form of accountability on sciences that target real-world problems. We describe a method for quantifying some aspects of dissemination impact and present data on how much of this impact has been earned by articles published in Behavior and Social Issues. The results provide considerable food for thought about how culturo-behavior science can proceed toward making the strategic pursuit of dissemination impact a component of its evidence-based practices.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42822-022-00120-3.

Tutorial. A Behavioral Analysis of Rationality, Nudging, and Boosting: Implications for Policymaking

As recent trends in policymaking call for increased contributions from behavioral science, nudging and boosting represent two effective and relatively economic approaches for influencing choice behavior. They utilize concepts from behavioral economics to affect agents' concurrent suboptimal choices: in principle, without applying coercion. However, most choice situations involve some coercive elements. This study features a functional analysis of rationality, nudging, and boosting applied to public policy. The relationship between behavior and environmental variables is termed a "behavioral contingency," and the analysis can include social and cultural phenomena by applying a selectionist perspective. Principles of behavioral control, whether tight or loose, may be exerted by policymakers or regulators who subscribe to paternalistic principles and may be met with demands of libertarianism among their recipients. This warrants discussion of the legitimacy and likelihood of behavioral control and influence on choices. Cases and examples are provided for extending the unit of analysis of choice behavior to achieve outcomes regulated by policies at the individual and group levels, including health, climate, and education. Further research and intervention comprise the study of macrocontingencies and metacontingencies. Advancing the understanding and application of behavioral science to policymaking may, therefore, benefit from moving from the relatively independent contributions of behavioral economics and behavior analysis to an inclusive selectionist approach for addressing choice behavior and cultural practices.

Sustaining Personal Activism: Behavior Analysts as Antiracist Accomplices

One pervasive social issue that has received little attention within the behavior-analytic community is racism and the systemic oppression of Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color. The present article offers guidance and examples of how each of us as behavior analysts might build individualized self-management behavior change plans that support initiating and sustaining socially significant antiracism work as we move from allies to accomplices within our own sphere of influence. This article introduces the concept of self-managed antiracism behavior change plans that (a) operationally define antiracist action using measurable outcomes and strategies for data collection on specific antiracist and support actions, (b) provide choices to improve engagement and reduce barriers to adherence, and (c) use effective behavioral interventions to alter the availability of discriminative stimuli or reduce their influence, and increase the availability of reinforcers that are compatible with the goal of the behavior change plan for increasing antiracism behavior and dismantling structures perpetuating racial inequities.

Willingness to produce disadvantageous outcomes in cooperative tasks is modulated by recent experience

Cooperative behavior represents a situation in which individuals sometimes act in a way that produces a gain to another at a cost to themselves. This may be explained by a history of repeated interactions with others in which such behavior has resulted in reciprocal cooperation from others. Sometimes, even with reciprocal cooperation, gains and costs are unbalanced between partners. In this case, there is evidence that people may present an aversion to both disadvantageous and advantageous distributions of gains. In other words, they may act in such a way as to ensure an equal outcome among all group members. Aversion to inequity that benefits oneself (advantageous inequity (AI) aversion) may be more dependent on social and cultural cues than aversion to inequity that benefits others (disadvantageous inequity (DI) aversion). Using both between-subjects (Experiment 1) and within-subjects (Experiment 2) manipulations, the influence of recent experience with AI on participants' willingness to produce DI was explored within the context of a two-player card game. In initial game phases, the percentage of trials in which the participant experienced AI was manipulated. In subsequent game phases, participants had the opportunity to produce DI to themselves. The results from both experiments suggest that aversion to DI is reduced by recent experience with AI. This procedure allows social influences on DI to be tested, which may be important for providing a psychological explanation of cultural differences in aversion to DI.

Research and Training in Culturo-Behavior Science

Culturo-behavior science (CBS) is a developing area and recently formalized specialization in behavior science that brings together principles and techniques from behavior analysis (e.g., Skinner, 1953), behavioral systems analysis (e.g., Brethower, 2008), cultural analysis (e.g., Glenn et al., 2016), and cultural systems analysis (Mattaini, 2020). Culturo-behavior scientists typically work within a selectionist and/or (ecological) systems perspective to advance our understanding of how cultural phenomena develop and change over time and how more effective cultures and systems can be designed (Cihon & Mattaini, 2019, 2020b). The purpose of the current article is to describe CBS, to introduce the recently formulated Association for Behavior Analysis International verified course sequence (VCS) and certificate program in CBS, and to present different pathways to training in CBS. We do this through the presentation of examples from the literature and from four universities that have adopted the CBS VCS and certificate program that are illustrative of how different programs may approach research and training in CBS.

Relations between Description and Experimentation in the Metacontingency Enterprise: An Interbehavioral Analysis

Despite extensive theoretical development, there is a lack of consensus in the metacontingency enterprise on the extent to which current metacontingency constructs describe experimental happenings. The purpose of this article is to provide an interbehavioral analysis of the metacontingency enterprise that examines relations between description and experimentation in order to facilitate research on cultural selection occurring through metacontingencies. In particular, this article considers how stimulus functions of descriptions of metacontingency constructs participate in metacontingency experiments in terms of specificity, types of analysis, levels of analysis, and procedures. The extent to which experimental findings are able to be described in terms of metacontingency constructs is assessed. Prominent events and relations demonstrated by metacontingency experiments are summarized and discussed, as well as inconsistencies between relations described and relations constructed based on events observed. Recommendations for experimental and descriptive adjustments are offered. Although this analysis may or may not have any bearing on the metacontingency enterprise, it may serve as a template for conducting interbehavioral analyses of activities in other enterprises, if not more analyses of the metacontingency enterprise.

Exploring Quality in the Applied Behavior Analysis Service Delivery Industry

As the applied behavior analysis (ABA) service industry (“the industry”) continues to rapidly expand, it faces three major problems. First, ABA service delivery quality (ASDQ) is undefined in ABA research and the industry. Second, we cannot rely exclusively on professional organizations that oversee licensure and certification to control ABA service delivery quality because they do not have control over the relevant contingencies. Third, without objective indicators of ABA service delivery quality, it is difficult for ABA organizations to distinguish the quality of their services from competitors. In this article, first we explain the need for more critical discussion of ASDQ in the field at large, briefly describe a sample of common views of quality in ABA research and the industry, and identify some of their limitations. Then we define ASDQ and present a cohesive theoretical framework which brings ASDQ within the scope of our science so that we might take a more empirical approach to understanding and strengthening ASDQ. Next, we explain how organizations can use culturo-behavioral science to understand their organization’s cultural practices in terms of cultural selection and use the evidence-based practice of ABA at the organizational level to evaluate the extent to which methods targeting change initiatives result in high ASDQ. Lastly, in a call to action we provide ABA service delivery organizations with six steps they can take now to pursue high ASDQ by applying concepts from culturo-behavioral science and total quality management.