The Science of Behavior in the Design of Cultures

Abstract

Skinner (1953, 1969, 1972, 1979) has suggested that the solutions to many problems that confront our society rest in implementing a science of cultural design based on the principles and technology of the analysis of behavior. Skinner’s novel Walden Two (1948) presented his vision of how the application of the science of behavior to the design of cultural institutions and practices might be accomplished. Walden Two presents the picture of a community in which most of the evils of society, such as poverty, hunger, crime, violence, and exhausting labor, have been eliminated, and in which all members lead a good life free from material want and debilitating social conditions. It is a community with an egalitarian social structure in which jealousy, hate, envy, bigotry, and oppression have been all but eliminated. It is a community in which the arts and sciences flourish and in which creativity and accomplishment are maximized. In short, it is a Utopia. But it is a special type of Utopia that has been brought about by the judicious use of the natural sciences in general and the science of behavior in particular; it is a behavioral Utopia.