Public Information, Dissemination, and Behavior Analysis

Behavior analysts have become increasingly concerned about inaccuracies and misconceptions in the public, educational, and professional information portraying their activities, but have done little to correct these views. The present paper has two purposes in this regard. First, the paper describes some of the conditions that have given rise to these concerns. Second, and more important, the paper surveys various procedures and programs for the dissemination of public information that may correct inaccuracies and misconceptions. Special consideration is also given to issues involving (a) the assessment of the problem, (b) the content and means of dissemination, (c) the possible contributions of behavior analysts to current misunderstandings, and (d) relationships between behavior analysts and the media. The dissemination of accurate and unbiased information constitutes an important new undertaking for behavior analysis. The future of the field may depend in part on such activity.

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