| Abstract: Since at least 2017, Americans have turned to online sources for news and related information. Information propagated as false news stories has political, social, economic, and health implications which has potential collateral consequences of altering resource allocations, changing the status quo, and polarizing populations against one another based on interpretations of virally produced false information or identification with certain groups disseminating false narratives. To stem the flow of false information, online sharing platforms such as twitter, could utilize behavior analytic strategies, including rule-governed behavior, behavioral momentum, and reinforcement. This study examines variables that govern the persistence and disruption of behavior regarding sharing information. The research will determine if the availability of convenient fact-checking services change the rates of sharing information. Additionally, the study examines factors relative to sharing patterns through the implementation of a disruptor, wherein participant’s shared information is rated according to percentage of factually checked information verified as accurate and resulting in a publicized percentage on each participant’s public profile. Knowledge regarding what factors motivate readers to determine the validity of shared information and what may deter the spread of false news may provide strategies to improve social outcomes and reduce the negative impact of false information. |
| Abstract: Countercontrol occurs when individuals generate aversive conditions and the behaver escapes or avoids the contingency (Delprato, 2002). Since the 1950s, Skinner has pushed the field to consider the impact of countercontrol in the systemic analyses of the institutions of education, government, incarceration, and religion (1953). Today, we are bombarded with trying to plug the leaks across all systems, but especially in education and the support of culturally and linguistically diverse students with and without disabilities. In this presentation, we will present an updated analysis of this response to social aversive control and how it can be seen in many of the interventions that are rooted in behavior analysis at the classroom and district levels. Situating our analysis in more modern critical pedagogies, such as critical theory, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and culturally relevant teaching, we will present why the current performances of resistance seen in students are simply their way of regaining freedom in the face of socially aversive, controlling attempts at coercion and behavior management and why ecobehavioral analysis is critical (Delgado, 2002; Kinloch, 2017; Sidman, 2001). Lastly, we will link across a 60 year span of research to bring emancipatory education and control under the same roof. |