Looking for a way to make your roommates pick up their dirty laundry, or do the dishes instead of building a putrid pile in the sink?
Have you tried training them?
Journalist Amy Sutherland gives a convincing explanation of how to properly train people in a witty and intelligent way.
Sutherland takes cues from the studies of psychologist B.F. Skinner and professional animal trainers on how to get animals to behave or perform tricks.
These techniques are then transferred to human behavior in order to improve interpersonal relationships.
She receives criticism of these methods, especially from men who were outraged by the idea of Sutherland "training" her husband. They say she was treating him "like an animal."
Despite this disapproval, Sutherland supports her efforts by the fact that people are all animals regardless of how they would like to separate themselves from the rest of the kingdom.
People attempt to train others around them every day, she says. When we tailgate slow people on the freeway, we are training them to drive faster or to get out of the way, she explains.
Sutherland goes through the world of animal training and then relates each technique to how people should be training those around them to acquire the behavior they prefer.
She rewards her husband's good behavior with a small gift or a "thank you" — each reward should be on the same scale as the action that is being rewarded.
The trick is reacting to behavior that is unwanted by ignoring the bad deeds.
The book doesn't imply that we should grab a whistle and start making demands of those around us, but instead tells how the reader should act and react to get a desired behavior from someone.
