Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 2 | 2010 | Number 2
The 2010 Presidental Scholar's Essay
By Erica Feuerbacher
Dr. Michael Shermer is a self-described skeptic, preferring this summary label to any other (2005b). The Oxford English Dictionary provides one definition of skeptic as, “seeker of truth.” This definition seems to especially capture the position of Shermer who has assiduously lobbied for scientific thought to displace magical thinking and for scientific evidence to be the guiding framework for society. Indeed, it is his skepticism that makes him such a fitting Presidential Scholar for ABAI’s national conference. In Shermer’s oeuvre, behavior analysts can relish an artful exposition of our basic scientific tenets, including inductive empiricism and determinism.
Shermer’s accomplishments include authoring over 10 popular books, writing regular columns for Scientific American, founding Skeptic magazine, directing the Skeptics Society, serving as adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University, and hosting the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech—without doubt an impressive and commanding resumé. However, it is not only the impressive volume of work that makes Shermer such an important contributor to contemporary society; it is his willingness to take on the biggest of issues in contemporary society using scientific explanations, and a determined activism to improve the condition of the world and its inhabitants through critical and scientific analyses, all of which parallel behavior analysis’ ultimate goals.
Behavior analysis is a science founded on empiricism: objective observations and measurements of natural phenomena. Moreover, behavior analysis’ empiricism is inductive; that is, it is a science built through repeated observations upon which a theory can be formed, requiring a close interaction with the empirical evidence. Skepticism similarly requires a close interaction with evidence and a priori theories can interfere with the skeptic’s objective assessment of the data. Ultimately, a good scientist is a skeptic. Indeed, in Shermer’s own conversion from skeptic to activist for climate change provides an illustrative example (2008a). The skeptic’s approach required that he personally engage the scientific evidence concerning global warming. Because he did not subscribe blindly to one worldview, he was able to change from skeptic to activist when enough evidence had accumulated. Being a skeptic does not imply doubting everything; instead, it suggests critically evaluating all the data at hand. As behavior analysts, we should likewise aspire to be sufficiently open to what our data tell us as to change perspectives completely when the data so dictate.
Another tenet of behavior analysis is determinism, a rejection of supernatural forces or other-world explanations for this-world phenomena. One of the last bastions for a fair amount of supernatural explanations is human behavior. However, in line with behavior analysis, Shermer takes a hard line in eschewing any explanations of that rely on supernatural phenomena. For example, he described debunking psychics (2002), demonstrating that cold reading was just human behavior produced through shaping and reinforcement, and that human behavior clearly falls under the domain of environmental determinism. In addition, Shermer devoted an entire book to the flip side of this phenomenon: behavior of the psychic’s observers and other instances when “people believe weird things” (2002). Again, using the scientific evidence from fields such as behavior analysis, Shermer clearly laid human behavior at the table of scientific explanation. He even addressed the prickly topic of free will, reaching a very behavior analytic conclusion, “Since no set of causes we select as the determiners of human action can be complete, the feeling of freedom arises out of this ignorance of causes” (Shermer, 2005a).
While it is always thrilling to encounter scientists who hail from other fields and adhere as tightly as our own field to these tenets, it is even more thrilling to find one who adeptly and persistently addresses society’s most challenging issues using these tenets and does so in a way that is accessible to the general populace. Along with the topics mentioned earlier, Shermer has also addressed irrational behavior in humans, human beliefs, and political issues. In all of these, Shermer has referenced the converging environmental and evolutionary variables producing those behaviors. In addressing irrational behavior, Shermer used behavioral economics to explain why humans do not always act in their own best interest, a framework that identifies the controlling contingencies (2008b). Likewise, in discussing human beliefs, Shermer pointed to humans’ apparent tendency to identify orderliness (2010), as well as the role of the verbal community and social (2002). Additionally, Shermer has made his perspective readily available to the nonscientist, writing in an engaging, accessible manner, and appearing on popular television shows such as Oprah. This demanding enterprise is one that behavior analysis should actively emulate: introducing and explaining our principles to nonscientists in such a way that such critical thinking more completely permeates the general populace.
Running throughout the works of Shermer is a tone of commitment to improving the human condition. Much like B. F. Skinner (1953), Shermer has identified the potential of clearly understanding behavior and what variables control it to improve human and nonhuman life. While pseudoscientific explanations, such as astrology or mentalism, may offer short-term comfort, they are ultimately empty and leave the promise of meaningful change in one’s life unfulfilled. In his dedication to help people, Shermer has recognized the need to debunk sham explanations and provide people with the tools to understand and control their own behavior, tools that can only come from a scientific understanding of behavior. As Skinner suggested, behavior analysis is a science of prediction and control (1953) and only through understanding can we gain control.
Clearly, Shermer's scientific underpinnings fall directly in line with behavior analysis. Moreover, he has promulgated this view by addressing some of society’s most daunting issues, all the while making his work accessible to the nonscientist, a necessary step if our science is to have the large-scale effects on society that many of us hope it will. Furthermore, as scientists and members of society, we should all take to heart the skeptic’s advice that Shermer gave his daughter, "It matters less to me what your specific beliefs are than that you have carefully arrived at your beliefs through reason and evidence and thoughtful reflection" (2007).
References
Shermer, M. (2002). Why We Believe Weird Things. Henry Holt and Co., LLC: New York, New York.
Shermer, M. (2005a). What I believe but cannot prove. Retrieved from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Shermer, M. (2005b). Why I am an atheist. Retrieved from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Shermer, M. (2007). A license to secular parenthood. Retrieved from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Shermer, M. (2008a). Confessions of a former environmental skeptic. Retrieved from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Shermer, M. (2008b). Stocks—Science tells us when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. Retrieved from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Shermer, M. (2010). How a lack of control leads to superstition and what can be done about it. Retreived from http://www.michaelshermer.com/category/essays/.
Skeptic. (n.d.) In Oxford English Dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.oed.com.
Skinner, B. F., (1953). Science and Human Behavior. The Free Press: New York, New York.