Stop Reinforcing Bad Behavior

The constant attention given to undesirable behavior ensures that it will continue.

By Rebekah Wanic

In typical alarmist fashion for legacy media these days, the Washington Post recently told us that the youth mental health crisis is “much vaster than we realize.” While it is clear that reports of mental health woes are increasing, very little is discussed with respect to real, meaningful solutions. We have previously considered this topic on our blog, but would like to address a cursory issue here.

A common complaint these days is that there are “no adults in the room,” highlighting how many individuals seem to be acting without self or emotional control. A simple scan of what gets attention from mainstream and social media presently confirms high rates of childish, negative and attention-seeking behavior. What almost no one seems to understand, or at the very least acknowledge and address, is the self-reinforcing nature of this ill-behavior and its associated attention.

The best way to get people to act in a more socially appropriate and prosocial ways is to pay attention to and provide accolades for desirable behavior and to ignore or punish the undesirable. This is not a new concept. It is the basic tenet of a long understood learning theory in psychology: operant conditioning. Consequences operate on behavior to control their likelihood, such that behaviors which are reinforced increase while those that are punished decrease. If the sole or primary reinforcer of certain bad behavior is attention, then removing the attention will reduce the behavior. This works on both a direct and vicarious level; our behavior can be modified by the consequences we experience or by witnessing the reinforcement or punishment of others.

In a media climate that thrives on likes, shares, and viewership to earn money, the problem of reinforcing undesirable behavior is co-mingled with profit motives and human psychology. We are prone to negativity bias, which means that information about woes, ills and threat is more likely to grab our attention and plague our memory. This means that negative events would seem to dominate, even in a situation where positive and negative information was shared equally. But, this is not what is happening. Research demonstrates that media coverage distorts reality by sharing proportionally more stories about negative events, even as their frequency has declined. And, social media researchers report, unsurprisingly, that negative posts generate more engagement.

All of this has consequences, something we and many others including famous psychologists such as Steven Pinker have discussed. Watching TV news can increase sadness and anxiety, exacerbating already existing fears. Although the arguments about the impact of social media use on mental well-being are plagued with questions of causality, much research has found a relationship between its use and negative mental health outcomes. Yet, many continue to flock to these sources of dysinformation, despite knowledge of their ill effects.

It is no wonder then that young people are struggling. They are awash in messaging about threats and inundated with information about a reality that doesn’t exist. This is then coupled with a reinforcement structure that supports, if not explicitly promotes, bad behavior from adults who should know better. But corporate and individual greed are strong forces, so we must all work harder to rise above.

When we stand by and allow young people to develop in a misinformed, dystopian version of reality that doesn’t comport with fact, we are complicit in creating their struggle. The onus is on all of us to be better and do better for their sake, and our own. We should all stop engaging with material, and financially supporting sources, that foster an overly negative or intentionally alarmist worldview. We should prevent children from engaging with such material and fight to help reduce their exposure. We should work harder to educate them on the false narratives created by a media-curated reality.

And finally, we should all stop giving the reinforcing attention to ill behavior by not sharing, promoting, and reacting to actions that are clearly attention-seeking. When streaking began to increase, media outlets concluded that the best way to reduce this behavior was to stop showing the individuals on their broadcast, lest they get the attention they so desired. We should follow suit and stop broadcasting negativity in our own lives and to those of others.

This week’s book recommendations:

The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley discusses how prosperity evolves.

And because it’s relevant here, a repeat: Factfulness by Hans Rosling et al., which explores “Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.”