What Is Social Reinforcement?

Social reinforcement is feedback from other people that can have a powerful influence how we behave. Learn more including how it works and examples.

January 17, 2025 · 8 min · 1612 words · Michelle Evans

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Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Social Reinforcement?How Does Social Reinforcement Work?4 Types of ReinforcementSocial Reinforcement ExamplesIs Social Reinforcement Effective?

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Table of Contents

What Is Social Reinforcement?

How Does Social Reinforcement Work?

4 Types of Reinforcement

Social Reinforcement Examples

Is Social Reinforcement Effective?

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There are many different types ofreinforcement, but when it comes to human beings, one of the most common is the social reinforcement that we encounter all around us.

Social reinforcement is feedback, in the form of actions such as smiles, acceptance, praise, acclaim, and attention, that we receive from other people in response to something we do. Reinforcement can either encourage or discourage us from engaging in a behavior.

According to social reinforcement theory, simply being in the presence of other people can serve as a natural social reinforcement.

In a famous study conducted in 1968, researchers looked at school-age children who spent little time studying. The children were then given praise and attention for their study efforts. The researchers found that children studied up to twice as much when given social reinforcement than they did before when they received no such reinforcement.

In some cases, thisattentiondoes not even need to come from an outside source. Self-reinforcement is a concept highly related to social reinforcement that involves giving yourself approval for your own behavior. We often respond to our own behavior with approval or disapproval, judging our actions just as we would those of another individual.

When you do something well, you might praise yourself and feel proud of your accomplishment. If you do poorly, you might engage in self-recrimination or self-blame. In some cases, you might actually reward yourself more overtly when youaccomplish a goalthat you have set for yourself.

For example, you might buy yourself a new pair of jeans after you reach your target weight or treat yourself to a vacation after you finish a difficult project at work.

There are four different types of reinforcement. They differ in how they encourage or discourage behaviors.

One of the best ways to understand social reinforcement is to notice examples of it in your everyday life. These examples illustrate how each type of reinforcement might happen in a social setting.

Positive Reinforcement

You’ll often see teachers and parents using positive reinforcement with children. For instance, some classrooms have a sticker chart to reward good behavior. Parents might let their child stay up late to watch a movie if they received good grades on a report card.

If you offer to help someone carry their groceries, they might thank you and compliment you on your good manners. This makes you feel good, so in the future, you may seek opportunities to perform the same good deed again.

Negative Reinforcement

An example of negative reinforcement is when a teen, who faces criticism from their friends for notsmoking cigarettes, decides to smoke to avoid this response.This example also shows how social reinforcement doesn’t always produce healthy behavior.

Extinction

Extinction indicates the absence of a behavior because there is no longer a reinforcement for the behavior. Extinction can also result from a negative experience. For instance, taste aversion is linked to extinction.

In social reinforcement, an example of extinction might happen if people stop complimenting you on your fashion choices. Where those compliments might have once reinforced your behavior and inspired you to spend more time putting together outfits, you might stop putting in the same effort as compliments dwindle and fade.

Punishment

There are two types of punishment reinforcement: positive and negative. Positive punishment means actively penalizing someone. For instance, a child who misbehaves during class might get sent to the principal’s office. This is a positive punishment.

A negative punishment, on the other hand, is when something is taken away as a means to punish undesirable behavior and reinforce desired behavior. In the case of a child who misbehaves during class, a negative punishment would be that they aren’t allowed to go on the class field trip—the privilege is taken away.

Whether or not social reinforcement is effective depends on a number of factors, including who is doing the reinforcing, who is receiving the reinforcement, and what the circumstances are.

Punishment can be an effective method of reinforcement, but there are many variables that affect whether it actually works. Research has found that with parenting, for example, children who were acting defiantly or hitting showed improvements in their behavior over time when parents reasoned with them (explained why hitting is bad) and only moderately used timeouts as a form of punishment.

When parents explained to their children that the consequence of behaving poorly is a timeout, timeouts became a more effective form of punishment as well.

11 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hall RV, Lund D, Jackson D.Effects of teacher attention on study behavior.J Appl Behav Anal. 1968;1(1):1-12. doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-1Hardy JK, McLeod RH.Using positive reinforcement with young children.Beyond Behavior.2020;29(2):95-107. doi:10.1177/1074295620915724American Psychological Association.Negative reinforcement.VanElzakker MB, Dahlgren MK, Davis FC, Dubois S, Shin LM.From Pavlov to PTSD: The extinction of conditioned fear in rodents, humans, and anxiety disorders.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2014;113:3-18. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.014Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel P, Killcross S, McNally GP.Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of punishment: implications for psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018;43(8):1639-1650. doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0047-3American Academy of Pediatrics.Positive reinforcement through rewards.Liu J, Zhao S, Chen X, Falk E, Albarracín D.The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation.Psychol Bull. 2017;143(10):1082-1115. doi:10.1037/bul0000113Lattal KM, Lattal KA.Facets of Pavlovian and operant extinction.Behav Processes. 2012;90(1):1-8. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.009Byiers B, Dimian A, McComas JJ, Symons FJ.Effects of positive and negative reinforcement in a concurrent operants arrangement on compliance and problem behavior.Acta de Investigación Psicológica.2014;4(3):1758-1772. doi:10.1016/s2007-4719(14)70978-0American Psychological Association.Punishing a child is effective if done correctly.U.S. Department of Justice.National Institute of Justice: Five things about deterrence.

11 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Hall RV, Lund D, Jackson D.Effects of teacher attention on study behavior.J Appl Behav Anal. 1968;1(1):1-12. doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-1Hardy JK, McLeod RH.Using positive reinforcement with young children.Beyond Behavior.2020;29(2):95-107. doi:10.1177/1074295620915724American Psychological Association.Negative reinforcement.VanElzakker MB, Dahlgren MK, Davis FC, Dubois S, Shin LM.From Pavlov to PTSD: The extinction of conditioned fear in rodents, humans, and anxiety disorders.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2014;113:3-18. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.014Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel P, Killcross S, McNally GP.Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of punishment: implications for psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018;43(8):1639-1650. doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0047-3American Academy of Pediatrics.Positive reinforcement through rewards.Liu J, Zhao S, Chen X, Falk E, Albarracín D.The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation.Psychol Bull. 2017;143(10):1082-1115. doi:10.1037/bul0000113Lattal KM, Lattal KA.Facets of Pavlovian and operant extinction.Behav Processes. 2012;90(1):1-8. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.009Byiers B, Dimian A, McComas JJ, Symons FJ.Effects of positive and negative reinforcement in a concurrent operants arrangement on compliance and problem behavior.Acta de Investigación Psicológica.2014;4(3):1758-1772. doi:10.1016/s2007-4719(14)70978-0American Psychological Association.Punishing a child is effective if done correctly.U.S. Department of Justice.National Institute of Justice: Five things about deterrence.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Hall RV, Lund D, Jackson D.Effects of teacher attention on study behavior.J Appl Behav Anal. 1968;1(1):1-12. doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-1Hardy JK, McLeod RH.Using positive reinforcement with young children.Beyond Behavior.2020;29(2):95-107. doi:10.1177/1074295620915724American Psychological Association.Negative reinforcement.VanElzakker MB, Dahlgren MK, Davis FC, Dubois S, Shin LM.From Pavlov to PTSD: The extinction of conditioned fear in rodents, humans, and anxiety disorders.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2014;113:3-18. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.014Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel P, Killcross S, McNally GP.Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of punishment: implications for psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018;43(8):1639-1650. doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0047-3American Academy of Pediatrics.Positive reinforcement through rewards.Liu J, Zhao S, Chen X, Falk E, Albarracín D.The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation.Psychol Bull. 2017;143(10):1082-1115. doi:10.1037/bul0000113Lattal KM, Lattal KA.Facets of Pavlovian and operant extinction.Behav Processes. 2012;90(1):1-8. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.009Byiers B, Dimian A, McComas JJ, Symons FJ.Effects of positive and negative reinforcement in a concurrent operants arrangement on compliance and problem behavior.Acta de Investigación Psicológica.2014;4(3):1758-1772. doi:10.1016/s2007-4719(14)70978-0American Psychological Association.Punishing a child is effective if done correctly.U.S. Department of Justice.National Institute of Justice: Five things about deterrence.

Hall RV, Lund D, Jackson D.Effects of teacher attention on study behavior.J Appl Behav Anal. 1968;1(1):1-12. doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-1

Hardy JK, McLeod RH.Using positive reinforcement with young children.Beyond Behavior.2020;29(2):95-107. doi:10.1177/1074295620915724

American Psychological Association.Negative reinforcement.

VanElzakker MB, Dahlgren MK, Davis FC, Dubois S, Shin LM.From Pavlov to PTSD: The extinction of conditioned fear in rodents, humans, and anxiety disorders.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2014;113:3-18. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2013.11.014

Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel P, Killcross S, McNally GP.Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of punishment: implications for psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018;43(8):1639-1650. doi:10.1038/s41386-018-0047-3

American Academy of Pediatrics.Positive reinforcement through rewards.

Liu J, Zhao S, Chen X, Falk E, Albarracín D.The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation.Psychol Bull. 2017;143(10):1082-1115. doi:10.1037/bul0000113

Lattal KM, Lattal KA.Facets of Pavlovian and operant extinction.Behav Processes. 2012;90(1):1-8. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.009

Byiers B, Dimian A, McComas JJ, Symons FJ.Effects of positive and negative reinforcement in a concurrent operants arrangement on compliance and problem behavior.Acta de Investigación Psicológica.2014;4(3):1758-1772. doi:10.1016/s2007-4719(14)70978-0

American Psychological Association.Punishing a child is effective if done correctly.

U.S. Department of Justice.National Institute of Justice: Five things about deterrence.

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