We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that love can be understood as a form of positive reinforcement in relationships.
This quote by B. F. Skinner implies that the concept of love is intricately linked to the behaviors that are encouraged through positive reinforcement. It suggests that what we often refer to as love may be fundamentally about creating an environment where positive behaviors are rewarded, thereby reinforcing the bond between individuals.
Themes
LovePositive ReinforcementRelationshipsBehaviorPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
During a relationship counseling session, I quoted Skinner to illustrate how love can be nurtured through positivity.
More from B. F. Skinner
All quotes →Each of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
B. F. SkinnerRead
No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been.
B. F. SkinnerRead
I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
B. F. SkinnerRead
The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
B. F. SkinnerRead
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