Criminal Behaviorology

Religion Reinforced – Religion as a schedule-induced behavior and the case of “King” James Strang

Timothy reads from a 2009 article on religion as a schedule-induced behavior by Paul S. Strand. In addition, a reading from Larry B. Massie’s Voyages Into Michigan’s Past focuses on a segment of a Mormon sect from the 19th century, and their leader James Strang who declared himself a king, and was revered as a prophet.

Show Highlights:

- The two classes of religious behavior: Nonoperant schedule-induced and operant behavior. The consistency of these two classes with the “graceful” and “effortful” religious experiences written about by theologians.

- How and why religion may maintain as a behavior across continents and generations. Religious behavior transcends topography.

- Learning in the form of socially mediated reinforcement. Acquired religious behavior may be motivated by social contingencies. Foundational religious behavior is motivated by something more. Foundational religious behavior continues regardless of the consequences.

- Declaring oneself an atheist as a religious act in itself.

- The potential for the automatic reinforcement of religion.

- Skinner’s superstition concept, and how subsequent research does not support his conclusions as an explanation of religious behavior.

- Induced behavior as being in the middle ground between pure operant behavior and reflexes.

- The murder of James Jesse Strang (“The King of Beaver Island”). The dramatic career of Strang as a Mormon religious leader and violent end of the Strangite sect on a remote Lake Michigan island.

Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior by Paul S. Strand, The Behavior Analyst (2009)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686986/

Voyages Into Michigan’s Past by Larry B. Massie
https://www.amazon.com/Voyages-into-Michigans-Larry-Massie/dp/0932212581

Criminal Behaviorology podcast on Michigan’s True Crime
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/criminalbehaviorology/episodes/2019-04-03T03_17_29-07_00

Criminal Behaviorology podcast on Pirates!
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/criminalbehaviorology/episodes/2019-09-18T17_27_55-07_00

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