Science and Human Behavior

Skinner defines social behavior as the interaction between two or more individuals either with each other or in relation to a shared environment. He challenges the notion that group phenomena require unique explanatory principles, insisting instead that, “it is always an individual who behaves” (298) and that social laws must be reducible to the contingencies governing individual actions. Using examples such as Gresham’s Law, he argues that collective outcomes emerge from repeated patterns of individual behavior rather than from mysterious “social forces.”

One key feature of social behavior is its reliance on social reinforcement. Unlike interactions with the physical environment, reinforcements such as attention, approval, affection, or punishment almost always involve the mediation of another person. Social reinforcement is often intermittent and context-dependent, leading to flexible but unstable patterns of behavior. Skinner illustrates this with examples like teasing, where variable reinforcement sustains persistence, and educational settings, where demands can be gradually increased, producing “a sort of human bondage” (300). He contrasts these dynamic contingencies with the more consistent reinforcement found in non-social environments.

Another dimension of the social environment is the social stimulus. Human cues—smiles, eye contact—gain importance because of the reinforcing contingencies associated with them.