President’s Column – Reflection: Behavior Analysis and Cultural Change

By Ramona A. Houmanfar

Reflecting upon the recent ABAI experience in San Francisco, and upcoming international conference in Prague, I see tremendous potential for further impact of the science of behavior in meeting current and upcoming socio-cultural demands. A fundamental challenge to behavior analysts is to identify ways to organize massive numbers of people to behave in ways that are conducive to prosocial advancements of cultural groups. Overconsumption is pushing past the earth s capacity to support many species including humans. Influencing behavioral patterns of hundreds, thousands, millions, or even billions of people require changes in many environmental sources of behavioral variation that influence resource consumption.

Maybe the most pressing behavior scientific challenge in the 21st century is changing cultural practices that contribute to climate disasters and associated socio-cultural upheavals such as pandemics, post disaster recoveries, and population migrations and associated social conflicts. For instance, the experiences of healthcare workers in recent years around the globe combating pandemics provide real-life scenarios that highlight how the arrangement of interlocked behavioral systems (e.g., government, hospitals, clinics etc.) can influence not only a consumer s well-being but also the well-being of those directly providing a service (Houmanfar & Szarko, 2021). With the expanding role of social networks in our global landscape (e.g., Meta, X, Instagram, etc.), opportunities for intra- and inter-individual transmission of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors inside and outside of organized entities are limitless (Glenn, 2004; Glenn et al. 2016; Houmanfar et al., 2024). We see examples of this across the globe as communication technologies orchestrate social action in response to or in opposition of governments restricting freedoms and other affronts to social groups.

With few exceptions, the recurrence of ineffective governmental and organizational responses to social crisis indicates the challenges ahead will be difficult and solutions will require much improvement in collective action. One implication for those seeking to change cultural practices is to identify the boundaries of the analysis (Glenn 2004; Glenn et al., 2016; Houmanfar et al., 2010; 2024). Too narrow and change can be limited to small focus areas. Too large and effects may be washed out by local contingencies or slow to diffuse through the larger population. In that regard, factors within cultural environment that influence the behavior and collective behaviors of verbally sophisticated individuals can be analyzed in the context of psychological, geographic and ecological boundaries (Houmanfar et al., 2024). Our challenge moving forward is to make appropriate use of our scientific units of analysis and behavioral assessment tools that guide systematic analysis of variability of cultural practices and management of appropriate interventions (e.g., Cihon & Mattaini, 2020; Glenn, 2004: Glenn et al., 2016; Houmanfar et al. 2024).

Institutions, social groups, private and public organiza tions comprise one sector to consider when approaching cultural change. Within these settings, how might we identify key environmental factors that influence patterns of behaviors in large populations that can be managed to improve wellbeing? Behaviors of those who design and implement socio-cultural contingencies in target organized entities (i.e., organizations), plus their aggregate products affecting community practices (Houmanfar et al., 2009; 2010; 2015; 2024), might be particularly important partici patory factors. This vantage point points to leaders as they are in positions to promote practical and effective solutions to social problems like global warming, social conflict, polarization, wealth inequality, and resource depletion.

One might also look beyond how organizational leadership behaves towards the people managed within the organized entity and toward the implications their leadership and management practices have for the culture more generally. For instance, in the US, citizens public health behaviors remain under-organized, fragmented, and seemingly not likely to improve. Waves of illness peak and ebb, fixes (e.g., vaccines) are developed and deployed at great expense, sometimes science is undermined, and crucial public health systems that might change critical behaviors remain neglected (Biglan, 2020; Houmanfar et al., 2021). Accordingly, the impact on US citizens health and safety may influence their perspectives toward the government s (federal and local in a majority cases) ability to handle other socio-cultural challenges. Often their outrage with inconsistent messages is communicated via media, direct communication with state representatives, and via the voting booth. These examples highlight the importance of systematic analyses and interventions that focus on behaviors of those who might design and change socio-cultural contingencies. Such assessment informs analysis of other socio-cultural challenges such as gun violence, social injustice, climate change, distrust of voting systems and more that plague societies.

Values pertaining to social justice, community welfare, and equity/inclusion may underlie development of applied behavioral science of culture that might foster large scale change (Alavosius & Houmanfar, 2026; Fawcett, 1991; Goldiamond, 2002; Houmanfar et al., 2015; Mattaini, 2023) and promote our social responsibility. Social responsibility is not new ground for behavior analysts to consider. For instance, Wolf (1978) and Hawkins (1991) discussed social validity and functional assessment of the societal importance of the goals, technologies, procedures and impacts achieved by applications of behavior analysis. Their analyses considered the social validity of interventions applied to help special needs populations and provide a framework to consider the impact of behavior science on larger social issues (Houmanfar et al., 2015). Research published in applied behavior analysis across settings and populations include consideration of social validity. In many ways social validity has been a defining dimension of applied behavior analysis (Baer et al., 1968) since the start.

Social responsibility can be defined from several different vantage points such as an individual, an organization, an institution, and a community as a feature of actions that promote social welfare. In relation to sustainable lifestyles, social responsibility is a key feature of leadership decision making in organizations serving the public and citizenship behavior of members of communities engaging with critical producers, suppliers, regulators and more. This interplay of producers and consumers might be arranged to promote the common good and minimize the exploitation of some for the benefit of others and thereby be deemed socially responsible (Alavosius & Houmanfar, 2026).

Speaking of consumers, analysis of learners interests who are entering our field might reveal the extent to which our graduate training programs teach, nurture, and mentor people from different populations and perspectives who can be inspired by the breath of our discipline. Career development that aligns with one s social values as well as collective values of our scientific group might be an important factor in the emergence of future leaders that will arise from our ranks. Such leaders manage resources, communications, distribution networks and more and might engage new entrants to behavior analysis in experiential learning opportunities in venues beyond those currently available. By systematically replicating behavioral applications to new focus areas, within the established research and practice traditions, we might develop the future generations of behavior analysts to pursue influential careers that speak to broad social issues (Alavosius & Houmanfar, 2026; Houmanfar et al. 2015).

Behavior analysis has the potential for providing pragmatic solutions that may alleviate some of the challenges humanity faces and offers prosocial leaders a promising strategy for cultural change (Biglan, 2020; Cihon & Mattaini, 2020; Houmanfar et al., 2015; 2024). The path forward may include further development of conceptual models that can guide systematic strategies for cultural change. In the past, amazing achievements such as ending the Cold War and landing humans on the moon permitted optimism that meaningful progress can be made when leaders mobilize human potential towards some grand vision. In keeping with Skinner s earlier enthusiasm, I believe that behavior analysis has the capability of making a significant impact on socio-cultural issues in which behavior change plays a vital function (Skinner, n.d.; 1987; 1990).

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