Operant conditioning of group behavior

There is growing interest in understanding group behavior as a phenomenon that cannot be fully explained by examining individuals alone. Behavior analysis, with its functional-analytic approach, is well positioned to contribute to this development. Traditionally, behavior analysis has focused on individual behavior as a function of environmental events, but the same principles can be extended to the behavior of groups. In two experiments involving dyads making collective choices, we tested whether group behavior could come under the control of programmed contingencies. Our findings showed that group responses, like individual ones, can be shaped by environmental consequences. These results reveal the potential of behavior analysis to advance the scientific study of group behavior.Keywords: group behavior, behavior analysis, operant conditioning, collective learning