Advertising brings them to the bank, maybe they’ll stick a finger in too; but they’ll dive in only if they’re sure that the water’s nice n deep.

[post on a concept I had found interesting long back (read at ur own peril :D )]

As someone once said, “….Behaviour is controlled by the consequences of behaviour itself”.

This is the 1^st brick in the foundation of the concept ‘Operant Conditioning’, also known as ‘Instrumental Learning’. A concept that the classic ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is based on, its implementation on intended subjects, is vested on the crucial aspects of role and timing of the reinforcements on them. You must see the film to really get this!

The process, unlike that in Conditional Learning, induces voluntary behaviour in the desired direction, and subjects make necessary changes, and quite willingly so, in their environment to incorporate the same.

Revolutionary work of Edward Thorndike and B.F. Skinner, both American psychologists, unveiled the possibility of inducing voluntary behavior transitions of intended beings (human & animals alike) in a specific direction. The concept was transfused into the core of advertising, by Gerald J. Gorn. Persuade them; make them choose you amongst a host of competing alternatives, unaware of the directing wheel that you turn. However, advertising cannot sustain you: ‘coz, behaviour when followed by positive experience is typically reinforced, whereas behaviour when followed by negative outcomes are quit.

Advertising can just make them try…..keeping them locked in is a task bred deeper still.