Faith, Fact, and Behaviorism.
Your decision to use ABA rests on unprovable values—acknowledge and examine those faith-based commitments openly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Staddon (2013) wrote a think-piece, not an experiment.
The author asked: why do we pick ABA over other help?
He argued facts alone don’t push us—hidden values do.
What they found
The paper says choosing ABA is a faith move.
You can’t prove with data that ABA is the only right path.
Owning that belief keeps the field honest and humble.
How this fits with other research
Assumpcão Júnior (1998) showed church rituals work like any operant: they pay off in group praise, not soul points. Staddon (2013) widens the lens—your very choice to do ABA is the same kind of operant, maintained by social payoff.
Scibak (2025) takes the idea into politics. If values steer behavior, then voting is operant and BCBAs should lobby. The 2025 paper extends R’s core claim from clinic choice to civic action.
Pear (1985) warned that early behaviorists hid inside safe, “objective” talk. Staddon (2013) agrees but adds: we still sneak values in; better to name them than pretend they aren’t there.
Why it matters
Next time you defend ABA, notice the leap you take. Saying “data shows ABA works” is only half the story. The other half is “I value self-determination, equity, or efficiency.” State that half out loud. It keeps you from sounding like a robot and invites real conversation with parents, teachers, and critics.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
David Hume argued that ought cannot be derived from is. That is, no set of facts, no amount of scientific knowledge, is by itself sufficient to urge us to action. Yet generations of well-meaning scientists (more and more as secular influences grow in the West) seem to have forgotten Hume's words of wisdom. All motivated action depends ultimately on beliefs that cannot be proved by the methods of science, that is, on faith.
The Behavior analyst, 2013 · doi:10.1007/BF03392309