Behavior-Based Approaches to Addressing Poverty
Shifting Perspectives and Building Lasting Change
A still from "Dark Days," a critically acclaimed documentary film released in 2000. Directed by Marc Singer, the film delves into the world of homeless individuals living in the underground tunnels beneath New York City.
Introduction
Poverty is a vicious cycle shaped and maintained by the interaction of the behavior of the poor within the context of the environment of poverty To stop this repeatable and perpetuating cycle of poverty, we need to focus on changing behavior. We also need to work on changing the environment of poverty. This change in behavior will gradually change the environment of poverty (culture of poverty) and can ultimatly reduce poverty.
Desmond and Western in the Annual Review of Sociology (2018) published: Poverty in America: New Directions and Debates. In order to conduct functional research on poverty, they proposed a conceptual framework that viewed poverty as the following:
Being multidimensional, involving material and human hardship associated with human vulnerability. As a consequence, it is associated with generational hard times and trauma that evolves with variants of behavior and repeats over time. Often, it is associated with family and neighborhood violence and broken institutions, like substandard schooling for the children of the poor that result in perpetuating a poor education with high dropout rates, consequently leaving them poor.
Poverty is conceptualized as interactive and relational, it is usually associated with an environment/culture of exploitation of the poor, shaped and reinforced through the mutual social and economic connections between the truly powerful and the truly vulnerable.
Empirical research must evaluate poverty as a matter of justice and equality of opportunities and not just economics. Desmond and Western concluded, "The new poverty research is humanizing and public-facing, documenting the lives of people who have been made largely invisible in popular imagination, politics, and much scholarship." They propose, "A multidimensional conception of poverty shifts attention from counting the poor to documenting the lived experience of scarcity." The poor live in a social and physical environment that supports and perpetuates poverty (the environment of poverty).
Social science research (The inclusive society? Social exclusion and new labour - Levitas, 2005). documents the lives of those who live "in a kind of statelessness." They document behavior facilitated by the environment of poverty. The behavior is associated with increased addiction and antisocial activities resulting in "social ills clustering together." Social science research has consistently shown that households, schools, and neighborhoods in impoverished communities often experience high levels of violence, health challenges, and societal disarray. The societal consequences include increased physical and mental health problems, increased incarceration as well as mental illnesses that remain untreated such as depression and anxiety, usually associated with decreased cognitive functioning and reduced social and work skills. We also need to consider the impact of the environment of poverty on the brain development of children as well as the human and societal cost of living in the unpredictability of poverty.
We need to focus on the environment of poverty, where behavior is shaped and maintained. This will require learning, understanding, and applying a science-based approach to behavior change. To change the environment of poverty it will be necessary to empower and change the behavior of the poor. Later in this essay, we will address the science of behavior change. It is the science of consequences.
Theories Regarding What Causes Poverty
David Brady in the Annual Review of Sociology (2019) published Theories of the Causes of Poverty. He argues, “Poverty research would benefit from more explicit theory and theoretical debate…” He proposed three broader families of theories: behavioral, structural, and political.
Behavioral theories: Concentrate on individual behavior shaped and maintained by the prevalent contingencies of reinforcement prevalent in the environment of poverty (incentives, deterrents and culture).
Structural theories: Emphasis on the demographic and labor market context, which sets the stage for the behavior contributing to poverty.
Political theories: Power and institutions create policies, which cause and worsen poverty and moderate the relationship between behavior and poverty.
While it is important to recognize that poverty is influenced by individual behavior, it is crucial to emphasize the reciprocal relationship between behavior and the environment of poverty. According to Brady, the poor often find themselves in poverty due to engaging in activities that perpetuate their disadvantaged circumstances. These behaviors can include single motherhood or unemployment, which contribute to the high prevalence of poverty within impoverished communities. Additionally, factors such as low education and poor work skills are known risks that significantly correlate with elevated poverty levels.
To effectively reduce poverty in the United States, it is necessary to focus on reducing the frequency of these behaviors. However, it is important to note that blaming the poor for their circumstances is not the intention. The behavior of poverty is both shaped and perpetuated by the environment in which individuals find themselves. Therefore, a comprehensive and evolutionary approach is needed, one that is guided, measured, and specifically targets the behavior-based aspects of poverty. By gradually transforming the environment of poverty, we can bring about lasting changes in the behavior of those affected, ultimately leading to a reduction in poverty rates.
More than 50 years of research in the social sciences have demonstrated that behavior is highly predictive of many important life outcomes. Behavior is predictive from one setting to the next, and consequences matter. “Bad” behavior can be linked to negative life experiences and cumulative consequences. For example, avoiding punishment by not getting caught stealing serves to reinforce stealing. The environment of poverty can be managed and modified so that the frequency of behavior contributing to poverty can be reduced and productive behavior increased thus empowering the poor to reduce poverty.
Behavior Matters
In the Summer edition of the magazine The Social Order (2019), Matt DeLisi and John Paul Wright proposed that many social activists “prefer to disconnect an individual’s behavior from his lot in life.” Social norms have historically provided the values and ways of acting that ultimately improve an individual's life (rule-governed behavior). Some of these recommended actions included “to get married before having children and to stay married, to get an education, to be a good employer or employee, to serve one’s country, to be neighborly and charitable, to avoid lewd public language, to respect authority, to avoid crime and drug abuse.” There is a direct connection between individual behavior and life outcome. It is individual behavior that often keeps people from reaching their potential. But again, it is the environment (contingencies) that prevent individuals from reaching their goals. It is NOT something innate (e.g., lack of a moral compass) that causes what we might call “poor choices.”
Poverty is often conceptualized as being the result and not the precipitating cause of the behavioral repertoire that leads to dropping out of school, chronic unemployment, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and criminal activity among other dysfunctional behavior. Behavior-shaped poverty is seen in the attitudes, values, and beliefs that reinforce entitlement thinking, rejection of personal responsibility, and the inability to engage in activities that consistently promote social opportunities for advancement. Individuals whose behavior is shaped by the environment of poverty live moment to moment (choose smaller, sooner reinforcers) because those are the contingencies that are reinforced.
Focusing on Behavioral Aspects of Poverty
In a famous exchange between Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald is reputed to have said, “The rich are different from the rest of us,” to which Hemingway replied, “Yes, I know, they have more money.” Liberals have long contended that Hemingway had it right. There is nothing wrong with the poor that a little more money wouldn’t cure. This view is, I believe, profoundly misguided. Money can alleviate the harsh conditions of poverty, but unless it is used to leverage changes in behavior, it will have little lasting effect.
Not only does behavior matter, it matters more than it used to. Growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have been exacerbated by a divergence in the behavior of the two groups. No feasible amount of income redistribution can make up for the fact that the rich are working and marrying as much or more than ever while the poor are doing just the reverse. Unless the poor adopt more mainstream behaviors, and public policies are designed to move them in this direction, economic divisions are likely to grow.
The Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity published a Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream (2015). They focus on the behavior that increases Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security. These include:
Family and parenting.
Quality education.
Develop work skills.
It is a fact that there is a need for a guided implementation of a behavior-based war on poverty program focusing on changes in the family structure and parenting skills prevalent now in the behavioral repertoire of the poor. We also need to focus on increasing the quality of educational programs for the poor which will require a strong, effective, and measurable educational curriculum that will give the young child an effective head start. We need to focus on building the integrity of the family and implementing programs that impart effective and positive parenting skills. Focusing on work training that continues the process of building opportunities, responsibility, and security, is a must in order to reduce poverty.
Brookings has it right. It is ambitious. Federal, state, and local governments working together within the context of a guided and measurable strategy that focuses on behavior and structural support change, is the most promising way to achieve the most equitable opportunities among us and to facilitate the poor participating in the richness of the United States. It is time for individual behavior, cultural structures (law, education, health care), and politics (government) to work together for the common good. In a future essay, we will address how such a “War On Poverty” looks and works. Now we will focus on the basics of the science of consequences.
The Science of Consequences
Susan Schneider's book The Science of Consequences (2012) explores the fascinating topic of consequences and their role in shaping human behavior. Consequences refer to the outcomes or results that follow a particular action or behavior. They can either increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. In the field of psychology, the concept of consequences is closely tied to two important principles: contingencies of reinforcement and schedules of reinforcement. We’ll briefly review these terms below, but see our 3/5/23 essay for a more detailed description of the terminology.
Contingencies and Schedules
Contingencies of reinforcement refer to the relationship between behavior and its consequences. When a particular response is followed by a desirable consequence, it increases the probability of that response being repeated in the future. This is known as positive reinforcement. For example, if a child receives praise and a small reward for completing their homework, they are more likely to continue doing their homework in the future. On the other hand, responses that are followed by undesirable consequences are less likely to be repeated. This defines punishment. For instance, if a student is scolded by the teacher for talking in class, she may be less likely to engage in that activity again.
Schedules of reinforcement refer to the timing and pattern of delivering consequences. There are several types of reinforcement schedules, including continuous reinforcement and intermittent reinforcement. Continuous reinforcement involves providing a consequence after every occurrence of a behavior, which can be effective for initially establishing a behavior. Intermittent reinforcement involves providing consequences after some, but not all, occurrences of the behavior. This can lead to more persistent behavior and resistance to extinction. Different schedules of reinforcement, such as fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval, can be used to shape and maintain behaviors in various ways. They determine how often and predictably the consequences are delivered, influencing the frequency and patterns of behavior.
Noncontingent Reinforcement
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) involves providing reinforcement without requiring specific actions from individuals. In some cases, NCR can be used to reduce certain behaviors by altering the conditions that maintain them. By providing consistent and predetermined reinforcers at regular intervals, NCR can diminish the need for individuals to engage in behavior to obtain desired outcomes. This can effectively decrease the frequency or intensity of the targeted behavior. (Note: Noncontingent reinforcement is a term that can be somewhat misleading due to its inherent contradiction. The concept of reinforcement implies a contingency, where a specific behavior leads to a consequence or reward. However, noncontingent reinforcement suggests that rewards are provided regardless of the individual's behavior, thereby negating the fundamental principle of reinforcement.)
There are numerous programs that incorporate NCR to help reduce poverty. One great program is the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which provides single Black mothers living in affordable housing with $1000 dollars. To be clear, we completely support programs such as this, we just fear it isn’t enough. What the research tells us is that these programs are not enough to truly break the cycle of poverty, although they do alleviate the aversiveness associated with poverty. Another example is the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). Launched in February 2019 by former Mayor Michael D. Tubbs, the program gave 135 randomly selected residents $500 per month for 24 months. Again, great idea, but could we use the science of consequences to develop more long-lasting programs that include NCR and support systems to focus on employment, health care, child care, and education?
Using contingencies in conjunction with NCR to help mitigate poverty is a more effective approach compared to NCR alone. By establishing clear contingencies, we can incentivize activities that contribute to individual and community progress. For example, providing financial assistance or benefits contingent upon engaging in educational programs or job training can encourage individuals to acquire valuable skills and increase their employability. This approach not only fosters self-improvement but also addresses the root causes of poverty by equipping individuals with the tools necessary to secure stable employment and higher incomes.
Final Thoughts
It is behavior, within the context of the environment, that should be the primary focus of any comprehensive effort to wage a behavior-based war on poverty. The science of consequences provides the scientific foundation that can guide this change. The present state of poverty evolved to the present and is sustained because of the consequences in place. Those who mostly benefit are not those who intended to be assisted. The science of behavior offers a methodology and guidance, but more importantly, hope.
Thank you for reading our Substack! Pass it on and see you soon.
Francisco I. Perez
Faris R. Kronfli
Henry S. Pennypacker
For those of you who are interested in delving deeper into these issues, we suggest H.S. Pennypacker & Francisco I Perez - Engineering the Upswing: A Blueprint for Reframing Our Culture - 2022, Sloan Publishing. It can be bought at The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies bookstore (behavior.org) or at Amazon. All proceeds benefit the Cambridge Center.