A Behavior Analyst Talks about Discrimination and Prejudice aired 04/04/23

Abstract

by A. Charles Catania, Ph.D., this session will apply behavior analytic thinking to the social categories called discrimination and prejudice. We’ll argue that discrimination in its social sense is closely related to our technical usage of the term (both depend on changes in behavior that depend on different consequences given different stimuli), and that prejudice(or pre-judgment) more often depends on verbal behavior that has been taught rather than on direct contact with contingencies. Verbal behavior makes it easier to spread and maintain prejudicial practices within a culture. We’ll consider implications, such as whether distinctions like this might be useful as we look for ways to ameliorate the damage produced by such social practices.