Don't Speak Behaviorism to Me: How to Clearly and Effectively Communicate Behavioral Interventions to the General Public

ABSTRACT

The study dealt with the notion that the style of communication of behavioral interventions affected their degree of understanding and social acceptability. For behavior therapists, we found that technical language was appropriate. For the general public, however, we found that conversational language produced more favorable outcomes than technical language. We found even more advantageous outcomes when conversational language was augmented with a description of the possible benefits for the client. The findings held true for four behavioral interventions. We proposed that two descriptions of interventions accompany behavioral treatment-one for the general public and the other for the professional behavior therapist.