Beyond freedom and dignity at 40: comments on behavioral science, the future, and chance (2007).
Skinner’s final fear—that our own behavior blocks global fixes—means BCBAs should engineer cultural contingencies, not just individual programs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Leigland (2011) re-read Skinner’s book Beyond Freedom and Dignity forty years later.
The paper asks one question: can behavioral science still solve world-sized problems like war and pollution?
It is a think-piece, not an experiment.
What they found
Skinner ended his life worried that human behavior itself blocks big fixes.
Sam says the worry is valid, but the block is just another technical puzzle.
The job is to design cultural-level contingencies, not only individual programs.
How this fits with other research
van Timmeren et al. (2016) extends the same idea into leadership science. They show how behavioral systems tools can guide a progressive political movement.
Saunders et al. (2005) said the field must leave the clinic and enter public health. Sam keeps the scale-up theme but shifts the target from health to whole cultures.
Malott (2004) gave a road map: plant funded pioneers in new countries and let contingencies spread. Sam agrees, yet warns that pioneers must also engineer rules that outlive them.
McGee et al. (2019) narrows the vision again. They use behavioral systems analysis inside autism agencies. The method is the same Sam wants, only the scope shrinks from globe to agency.
Why it matters
If you write only single-client BIPs, you are solving one life at a time. Sam says you can keep your skill set and still shape bigger systems. Start by mapping the contingencies that maintain the problem where you work—staff turnover, funding rules, parent policies. Then write a contingency plan, not just a behavior plan. That is how clinic knowledge scales to culture change.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Forty years after the publication of Beyond Freedom and Dignity (Skinner, 1971) and the continuing growth of behavior analysis, the future of humanity and the role of behavioral science in that future remain uncertain. A recent paper by Chance (2007) documented a shift in Skinner's views during the last years of his life. Skinner had long advocated a science and technology of behavior for finding and engineering solutions to cultural and global problems and advancing human development. This optimism had given way under a gradual realization that the science of behavior was in fact showing how such problems were unlikely to be solved in time to avert a variety of possible disasters. Chance described nine behavioral phenomena that appear to interfere with effective problem-solving behavior on a large scale and in effective time frames. These phenomena are reviewed toward an analysis of common themes. Research is also reviewed that involves nonverbal, verbal, and cultural contingencies that may lead to applications designed to address the common themes. Problems and strategies of implementation are also discussed. The challenges are daunting, but may nevertheless be regarded as technical problems best suited for a science and technology of behavior.
The Behavior analyst, 2011 · doi:10.1007/BF03392258