Yes, quite serious.
He was a very mild-mannered, unassuming guy, born in Pennsylvania.
In his lab he showed me the cages containing white pigeons. One of the pigeons he was training to play a piano keyboard.
[ A large application (of the ‘schedules of reinforcement’ Dr. Skinner created) has been made by the designers of slot-machines, which are installed in casinos and game rooms. The schedules of pay-offs get the player to keep putting in cash long after he would have given up pushing the button, would have taken whatever funds he still has, and would have left the casino or mart.]
One gets the impression that to Fred “education” was merely “instruction.”
I admit, though, that I used his positive reinforcement idea to make my four-year-old kid sister a better person. When she did something nice, or behaved like an optimist, I would, at times, soon offer her a tasty dried-apricot. She ate it up ! She beamed a big smile! Today, of all her siblings she considers me her favorite. Later, when she grew up, she went on to become an elementary-school teacher. She thus acquired skills which aided her, once she became a mother, in doing a great job in raising her three kids. Her son, since then, has had three kids of his own. All will make a great contribution; all will bring us closer to living in an Ethical world.
As you know, like a knife can be used to cut a tomato or cut a person, technology - uch as, for instance, Fred Skinner’s systematic models for Psychology - can be misused. It can be used for good; or used for bad purposes. That is why it is so important for everyone to know their Ethics and/or to live ethically, thus setting a good example.
For everyone, though, let’s spread the word that morality is in our best-interest
To learn about its meaning and its structure see Chapter Three of the first selection listed below in the signature: click on THE STRUCTURE OF ETHICS.
Then discuss the topic across the dinner table, as well as with everyone you meet. If they agree that “Morality is in our best-interest”
then proceed to teach them the implications of that as you now - having read up on it - understand them.