The principle of operant selection is examined as a prototype of cultural selection, and the role of the social environment is suggested as the critical element in the emergence of cultural phenomena. Operant contingencies are compared to cultural selection contingencies, designated as metacontingencies. Both of these types of contingency relations result in evolving lineages of recurrences that can become increasingly complex in the number and organization of their elements. In addition to its role in the recurring interlocking behavioral contingencies that constitute cultural organization, operant behavior plays another role in cultures. Although the operants of individuals are functionally independent of one another, the behavior of each person may contribute to a cumulative effect that is relevant to the well-being of many people. Similarly, the outcomes of metacontingencies may also contribute to a cumulative effect. The relation between independently evolving operant lineages, or between independently evolving cultural lineages, and their cumulative effect is identified as a macrocontingency. Macrocontingencies do not involve cultural-level selection per se. Effective cultural engineering requires identifying the macrocontingencies that produce less than desirable effects and altering the relevant operant contingencies or metacontingencies to produce change in the cumulative effects.
A synthesis of cultural materialism and behavior analysis might increase the scientific and technological value of both fields. Conceptual and substantive relations between the two fields show important similarities, particularly with regard to the causal role of the environment in behavioral and cultural evolution. Key concepts in Marvin Harris's cultural materialist theories are outlined. A distinction is made between contingencies at the behavioral level of analysis (contingencies of reinforcement) and contingencies at the cultural level of analysis (metacontingencies). Relations between the two kinds of contingencies are explored in cultural practices from paleolithic to industrial sociocultural systems. A synthesis of these two fields may offer the opportunity to resolve serious problems currently facing modern cultures.
Behavior analysts implement different type of interventions in their efforts to bring about cultural change. In this article, we identify basic elements of interventions having such goals: the number of people whose behavior contributes to the product of interest, the variety of response topographies that help to generate the product, the intervention locus of change, and the selection contingencies involved in bringing about that change. Based on these elements, we distinguish interventions that target selection contingencies from those that do not; and we distinguish those selection contingencies where the locus of change is individual repertoires (operant contingencies and macrocontingencies) from those where the locus of change is cohesive cultural entities (metacontingencies). We illustrate each type of intervention with examples from the behavior analytic literature and discuss some conceptual, practical and methodological implications.
This article represents an attempt to reach consensus on terms frequently used by its authors, who share an interest in extending a behaviorist worldview to cultural phenomena. Definitions of metacontingency, macrobehavior, macrocontingency, culturo-behavioral lineage, and cultural cusp were 1 A meeting ultimately resulting in this paper was held as part of a regional conference of the Brazilian Society of Psychology, partially supported by FAPESP (grant# 2015/00662-9) and CAPES (grant# 23038
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