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Terence Semple's avatar

I am not disagreeing in any way with your marvellously thorough and perceptive accurate observations of the most critical danger currently facing our civilization.

However, in my experience as a clinician (>45 years),in general, order to change the behaviour of an individual, one must correctly, and thoroughly, identify the reinforcers, provided by the outcome of the behaviour. The reinforcers may be conscious or unconscious, or a mixture of both. In the case of a rat in a Skinner Box, the food pellet is made a reinforcer by reducing the availability the primary food. (I paraphrase this as: push bar get food pellet).

My question is: What are the most basic low level psychologically based reinforcers for the behaviour of the individuals leading to this state? I understand money, fame power over others, but what are the psychological factors which make these (and others) so incredibly powerful and insatiable?

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Micheal Nash, Ph. D.'s avatar

How about pain....physical and psychological. In the Air Force saw rhesus monkeys strapped in chairs in an altitude chamber in front of a control panel. They were trained to respond to signals popping up on those panels. Do it right get a food pellet, wrong get a shock in the butt. They were dosed with Staph.enterotoxin, run to altitude and put to work. As they became sick they quickly ignored the food signal but not the pain advoidance signal. Pain advoidance is a strong motivator

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Shelley's avatar

Oh how awful. Those poor animals.

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Thomas from Iowa's avatar

Like Fauci’s beagles.

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Micheal Nash, Ph. D.'s avatar

They were lucky--they survived. These were experiments carried out for SAC to determine how long function remained after a debilitating event. We got them from Wright Patterson where they got this training and where in their experiments they were given a lethal dose of radiation. Suspect it was info about these kinds of studies leaking back to India that convinced them to halt shipment of rhesus here. Of course by then we had breeder colonies established.

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Shelley's avatar

Humans are cruel.

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Micheal Nash, Ph. D.'s avatar

Agree. Worked with mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits and rhesus (up to 12 lbs and that is a handful). Actually hated what we did to the critters (maybe not so much the mice...well, maybe even them too).

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Shelley's avatar

Perhaps a psychological inability to experience or relate to basic compassion for others – a ‘Cain’ individual. They can adapt only so much to hide themselves and they gravitate to their own kind. A basic screw is missing . . .

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