Is this punishment or reinforcement? Can you explaing the behaviors in theis video using what we know about behavior analysis?
Swear Jar Bud Light TV commercial from Bud.TV
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First off, this is absolutely hilarious. I believe this video is about reinforcements. I do not believe it is about punishments because paying a quarter is not aversive. They want to pay the quarter because of the end results. The end result of getting the bud light is a reinforcer for cursing. The antecedent for the foul language is the rule and the jar. The behavior is the cursing, and the consequence is enjoying a bud light. They change the behavior of paying a quarter from a punishment to a reinforcer.
I would argue that the commercial is about both punishment and reinforcement, in that the jar was meant to be a punishment but became a reinforcer. Initially, before knowing that the money would go towards the office, more specifically BudLight for the office, the swear jar would have been a punishment. The goal of swear jars is often to decrease the behavior rather than increase the behavior, as seen in this commercial. The consequence for the behavior, swearing, would be paying money to the jar, a normally aversive behavior if the money is not going towards something one wants. Because people in the office found that the money would go towards BudLight, they began to swear more often thus increasing the behavior.
The intended consequence of a swear jar is to punish the behavior of using swear words and decrease the frequency of swearing. It is aversive to lose money each time you swear. However, in this example, swearing was associated with the consequence of drinking Bud Light, and therefore the behavior was strengthened. This commercial serves as a warning to anyone who intends to use punishment: Bud Light is not an aversive stimulus, and may result in the reinforcement of (swearing) behavior!