B.F. Skinner, a key figure in behavioral psychology, long argued that rewards will change behavior because the direction of change is clear. Punishment, he claimed, rarely works because it is a general opprobrium that the victim of the punishment is never sure what the punishment was directed at. (Your father yells at you for spilling your plate on the floor....was he upset with the particular food that fell? was he in a bad mood?... was spilling food at that time of day or in that place the wrong thing to do?) Punishment is confusing, rewards are directives.
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