Negative Reinforcement

Description of the Concept

A negative reinforcer is a stimulus the withdrawal or escape from which, or the postponement, termination, or avoidance of which, increases the probability of (i.e., strengthens) responses that produce any of these events. Negative reinforcement (NR) is the descriptive label for the relationship between the stimulus, the events, and the change in probability. NR is a ubiquitous phenomenon, and examples of negatively reinforced behavior abound on every scale of human (and infrahuman) existence. Some small-scale examples include scratching irritated skin, pulling up the covers on a cold night, turning off an alarm, rolling up the car windows while driving on a dusty road, using mouthwash, moving away from the campfire, using sunscreen, visiting the bathroom before boarding an airplane, taking an antacid tablet for heartburn, and wearing galoshes. Large-scale examples include the field of preventive medicine (e.g., vaccinations, inoculations, hygienic maneuvers), disaster alert systems, flood prevention and control, key rituals in the great religions (e.g., circumcision, ablutions, penance), speed limits, and most aspects of the law. On a colloquial level, behavior whose purpose is the reduction or avoidance of unwanted experience is said to be negatively reinforced.

Despite its ubiquity and the long-standing and ready availability of its technical definition, NR is probably the most misunderstood concept in behavioral psychology and one of the most misunderstood in psychology at large. Relatedly, the most common misunderstanding is that NR involves punishment. For example, a story published in the New Yorker magazine described a punishing event as a negative reinforcer. When informed of the error, the editorial staff replied that a definition equating NR with punishment was so prevalent in journalism that it had become the de facto definition. Note, though, that this is true only in a colloquial context; the definition offered in this entry remains correct for NR in a technical context.

That NR is difficult to understand is because it involves the absence of events, and it is difficult to apprehend how the absence of an event can supply reinforcement. That NR is widely equated with punishment is due in part to the word negative. In NR, however, the word negative merely refers to any of a number of synonyms for escape or avoidance, not to the aversive quality of an experience or event. In fact, the word closest in meaning to the negative in NR is minus. Misconstruing NR with punishment also happens because the production of NR depends on aversive events, and the most intuitively accessible perspective on aversive events is that they punish (i.e., reduce the probability of) behaviors that bring them about (e.g., once burned, twice shy).