Not so fast, Mr. Pinker: A Behaviorist Looks at the Blank Slate. A Review of Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Behavior and Social Issues, Fall 2002 by Schliger, Henry D

Pinker tells us that behaviorism is dead. But there are currently thousands of active practicing behaviorists all over the world with numerous scientific journals and dozens of professional organizations, including a division of the American Psychological Association. And if one includes basic researchers, for example, comparative psychologists and neuroscientists who study the effects of environmental variables on behavior and the brain, as well as cognitive behavior therapists, the numbers swell. Obviously, Pinker's report of the death of behaviorism is not just greatly exaggerated, it is wrong.

If these characterizations hadn't been rebutted so often by behaviorists themselves and so prominently, such as by Skinner in About Behaviorism, as well as by numerous others in articles, including those in the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychologist (see, for example, Todd & Morris, 1992), then such scholarship might be excusable. However, in this case, Pinker's poor scholarship is indefensible. Of course, if Pinker had done his homework and reported the behaviorist position accurately, he could not have used it as a primary example of a blank slate position that denies human nature.

If the above is any indication, the scholarship in the Blank Slate is less than exemplary and probably represents a case where personal ambition has clouded objectivity. In the examples I've described, Pinker engaged in less than adequate scholarship, misrepresentation or misunderstanding of, and unnecessary personal attacks on, those with whom he disagrees. Such strategies might sell books, but in the lone run they do not serve objective science.

REFERENCES

Bateson, P. (September 2002). The Corpse of a Wearisome Debate. Science, 297 (27), 2212-2213.

Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New York: Viking.

Poling, A., Nickel, M., & Alling, K. (1990). Free birds aren't fat: Weight gain in captured wild pigeons maintained under laboratory conditions. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 53, 423-424.

Schlinger, H. D. (1996). What's wrong with evolutionary explanations of human behavior. Behavior and Social Issues, 6, 35-54.

Skinner, B. F. (1938). The Behavior of Organisms. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Skinner, B. F. (1974). About Behaviorism. New York: Knopf

Todd, J. T., & Morris, E. K. (1992). Case histories in the great power of steady misrepresentation. American Psychologist, 47, 1441-1453.

Henry D. Schlinger1 California State University

1 Correspondence concerning this review should be addressed to the author at: Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA 91330-8255, or by email to hschling@csun.edu.