Differential reinforcement to promote peaceful protests
- lizziedunavin
- Jun 2, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 6, 2020
Let me start with a definition of differential reinforcement. In simple terms, this is reinforcing a desired behavior while discontinuing reinforcement of a previously reinforced, not desired behavior. Now there are many differential reinforcement strategies, but the strategy I want to discuss for this particular social issue is DRA. This is differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior. A definition of DRA is: reinforcing behaviors that serve as an alternative to the problem behavior.
"Black Lives Matter protest leader Dominique Liu-sang told 10/11 they had negotiated with law enforcement to allow the protests to continue for awhile as long as they stayed peaceful."
Okay, I'm sure we may have lost some readers with this behavior analytic mumbo jumbo. But if I haven't lost you yet, listen close to what I am about to say. The next part of this post is purely my thoughts and my thoughts alone. I haven't found the research to support these opinions, I'm just thinking out loud. As always, I welcome questions! I welcome comments, research, and further applications. I would love this to be an open dialogue to create change.
So I want to take you out to Lincoln, Nebraska on Saturday, May 30th. Most were asleep with no idea what they would awaken to. But roughly 200 individuals took to the streets for what started as a peaceful protest. Around 2am this protest turned violent when a women was struck by a car. This created chaos that resulted in broken windows, looting of a convenience store, arrests being made, tear gas thrown, and overall not peaceful protesting. These protests continued into the night, again starting peaceful but ending in items being thrown and fireworks being shot off in the direction of law enforcement. Again this resulted in multiple arrests and force including tear gas being used.
So let's look at how the city responded on Sunday, May 31st. The Mayor announced an 8PM curfew for city. All individuals needed
to be off city streets by 8:00PM or they could be charged with a misdemeanor. Now this is where some behavior analytic strategies come into play. According to 1011 News "Black Lives Matter protest leader Dominique Liu-sang told 10/11 they had negotiated with law enforcement to allow the protests to continue for awhile as long as they stayed peaceful."
Talk about DRA! Law enforcement worked with these protesters to reinforce the positive behavior of peaceful protests, while not reinforcing violence or vandalism. If the crowd stayed peaceful, the crowd was reinforced with the opportunity to have their message heard. If the crowd started throwing things, breaking things, engaging in violence, or engaging in vandalism, police would move forward and make arrests due to curfew violation.
Now the thing with behavior management is it doesn't necessarily work immediately. We saw this on Sunday night at 8:45PM, a measly 30 minutes after this agreement between law enforcement and protesters was reached. Something started an escalation that led to police moving forward, making arrests, and deploying tear gas. It's unclear what ignited this, but we see that the DRA procedure was in fact working for 30 minutes.
Let's look at the events on Monday, June 1st. Curfew for Monday night was set at 9:00 PM. As 9:00PM came and went the crowd of protesters stayed the same. There was little to no police force seen! Every once in a while you would see a protest organizer talking with a state patrol trooper. One of the most heartwarming moments was protestors and police force kneeled together for a moment of silence. The police force used DRA. Whether they know it or not, the police force reinforced these individuals by letting them have a voice and get their message heard, while also being very clear about the lack of reinforcement that would occur following any attempts at violence or vandalism.
The reason behind this post is to show an example of what differential reinforcement can do to increase peaceful protesting while decreasing violence and vandalism. Now this isn't a case study. I don't have all the research. This is simply my ideas behind what we could do as a society to let individuals have their voice, while also protecting our communities.
(Keep in mind, this is an ongoing and fluid situation. This is my opinion currently as of Tuesday, June 2nd. We shall see what tonight brings.)
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