The Science of Consequences: How They Affect Genes, Change the Brain, and Impact Our World

Scientists who venture into nonfiction book writing with the hope of appealing to a general audience have adopted a variety of strategies with varying degrees of success. Some authors’ research careers are long, successful, and entertaining enough that simply summarizing their scientific programs can produce a successful book. Kahneman (2011) wrote a bestselling general-audience account of his lengthy collaboration with Amos Tversky. Similarly, Daniel Ariely’s research program is so varied and interesting that he has managed to achieve great success simply by producing entertaining descriptions of his laboratory work (Ariely 2009, 2010). Other researchers have focused on a particular phenomenon, such as the experience of pleasure (Bloom 2010), implicit biases (Banaji and Greenwald 2013), or the commission of evil acts (Zimbardo 2007).

Within behavior analysis, the most successful books have been about the applications of the science to specific problems. The how-to book Toilet Training in Less Than A Day (Azrin and Foxx 1974) is arguably the most successful behavior analytic book ever written, and Don’t Shoot the Dog, first published by Pryor (1984), still sells briskly. Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family’s Triumph Over Autism (Maurice 1993) is a memoir written by a nonprofessional whose children benefited greatly from behavior analytic therapy. Skinner’s most successful forays into general-audience publishing rode to success on waves of controversy. The utopian novel Walden Two (Skinner 1948) envisioned a highly unconventional society and introduced readers to what many found to be a distasteful deterministic philosophy. Nonetheless, as interest in countercultural lifestyles grew in the late 1960s and early 1970s, sales of the Walden Two soared (Altus and Morris 2009). The bestselling Beyond Freedom and Dignity (Skinner 1971) provided a more direct assault on conventional views of free will and responsibility, and by the time, he published About Behaviorism (Skinner 1974). Skinner was on the defensive, hoping to correct the misrepresentations with which his earlier introductions to the public sphere were met.

Against this backdrop, Susan M. Schneider takes on a rare and difficult task. Rather than focusing on a narrow topic or attempting to stir up a new firestorm, she strives to present the full depth and range of a science that is now far more mature than the one Skinner first described. In its scope, The Science of Consequences draws comparisons to Science and Human Behavior (Skinner 1953), the book that introduced many of us to a behavior analytic view of human social institutions and behavior. But Skinner wrote Science and Human Behavior as a strange kind of textbook, making remarkably little effort to imbed his subject in psychology, biology, or any other allied discipline. About Behaviorism (Skinner 1974) was similarly broad in scope, written in a very accessible manner, and quite successful, but it was a defensive effort born out of early controversy.

In contrast, The Science of Consequences comes in a time of relative peace, and it is a work of optimism and inclusion. Schneider brings Science and Human Behavior into the present, drawing upon recent findings in behavioral neuroscience, genetics, and biology.1 All the while, she maintains an unswervingly positive attitude, never stooping to bolster behavior analysis by trampling on competing views. That she is largely successful in this project is testament to the remarkable achievement of this book.

The core idea is simple enough. Give behavior analysis a clearer, more transparent label, The Science of Consequences, and follow it wherever it goes. Make the book accessible to a general audience by breaking the story up into short, digestible pieces, keeping the language nontechnical, and filling the book with as many anecdotes and interesting science facts as possible. Dazzle your readers with the wonders of nature and the pervasive influence of contingencies on the lives of humans and nonhumans alike. If successful, the effort will have a number of positive effects. First and foremost, it will introduce behavior analysis to a new audience of general science readers and present it not as an old approach overshadowed by cognitive psychology and neuroscience but as a vibrant up-to-date venture. Second, the book will invigorate the troops. As behavior analysts—particularly in the experimental wing—have watched other approaches and other researchers ascend to prominence, it is quite gratifying to be reminded that the behavioral principles we hold dear are still enormously influential in the world around us.

In the first section of the book, “Consequences and How Nature-Nurture Really Works,” Schneider begins with a wide lens, showing the effects of consequences in evolution, genetics, and neuroscience before honing in on more specific topics. She ably demonstrates that consequent effects can be seen in places far afield of the kinds of environmental effects typically studied by behavior analysts, and she makes full use of her unifying theme, pointing to the influence of consequences in DNA methylation, the creation of new synapses, the myelination of axons, and the expansion of brain volume. Schneider has clearly spent considerable effort finding the effects of consequences in the literatures of biology and neuroscience, and, in the process, she has expanded our discipline beyond its conventional boundaries.

The second large section, “There’s a Science of Consequences?,” is a refreshing approach to a wide range of familiar behavioral processes, including schedules of reinforcement, choice, aversive control, Pavlovian interactions, attention, and thinking and communicating. These chapters of the book are remarkable for Schneider’s ability to introduce technical topics (e.g., schedules of reinforcement, the matching law) using clear, nontechnical language. She will often describe a study from the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior or some other scholarly source, but her summaries are succinct and transparent, providing just the key bits of methodology needed to make her point. In addition, the book is filled with many other examples drawn from everyday life or from the application of the science of consequences to various social problems. There are a number of topics that might naturally lead to a discussion of current or old theoretical controversies (e.g., language or intrinsic reinforcement), but Schneider wisely avoids these academic conflicts and stays on the high road of science advocacy.

The third section of the book, “Shaping Destinies,” contains a series of chapters showing how the principles Schneider has introduced in the previous sections can be applied to marital therapy, problems of self-control, animal training, education, and the treatment of various psychological problems. Once again, the author manages to use a diverse array of lively examples that distinguish this book from a textbook introduction to applied behavior analysis. In addition to her career as a behavior analyst, Schneider is a naturalist in the classic sense—a bird enthusiast, an insect expert, and a gardener—and she frequently draws upon this background to provide interesting and very effective illustrations of her points.

If there is a weakness in The Science of Consequences, it is a weakness in the science itself. As the book heads into the final chapter, “Consequences on a Grand Scale: Society, the Long Term, and the Planet,” it becomes evident that behavior analysts have added little to these topics. Although an operant analysis is hugely relevant to all of the societal problems addressed at the end of the book, few behavior analysts have ventured into these waters. As a result, most of Schneider’s treatment of prejudice, obedience to authority, and the other topics of this chapter is drawn from traditional social psychological sources. This transition may not be noticed by general readers, but behavior analysts who have enjoyed the remarkable display of their science in the earlier chapters of the book may find these last few pages anticlimactic. It is perfectly appropriate that the book end with this broader view; it is unfortunate that by the time she arrives at this point, behavior analysis has run out of steam.

The Science of Consequences succeeds on a number of important levels. First, the sheer scope is dazzling. Schneider has taken the broadest possible view, and her industriousness in finding sources is quite admirable. This larger vision has the great benefit of strengthening the science of consequences as a unifying principle. In addition—and most importantly—The Science of Consequences works as a science book for a general audience. It reads easily, and because all the supporting documentation is tucked away in notes at the end of the book, the great majority of readers are free to ignore the notes and stop when they reach the end of the main body of text. To further enliven the story Schneider has filled the book with illustrations drawn by René C. Reyes. Finally, for those who have a deeper interest, there are extensive notes at the end of the book—35 pages of them—a glossary, a 50-page bibliography, and an excellent index. So, although its primary audience is the educated general reader, The Science of Consequences is also constructed with sufficient scholarly rigor to serve as a text in a college course.

This book is a multifaceted gift to behavior analysts, and a large portion of that gift is derived from the book’s extensive documentation and consistent focus on the wonder of discovery. Susan Schneider has provided us with a very readable volume that can also serve as a textbook, and by finding the role of consequences in so many corners of the natural world, she has also expanded and enlivened our enterprise. For all of this, we owe her a debt of gratitude.