Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31976979›Full record

ArticleThe Behavior analyst2016

On the Social Acceptability of Behavior-Analytic Terms: Crowdsourced Comparisons of Lay and Technical Language.

Amel Becirevic, Thomas S Critchfield, Derek D Reed

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Behavior analyst, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
39citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

39 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. A Call to Action for Qualitative Behavior Analysis.Behavior analysis in practice · 2026
    Article
  4. Neurodiversity-Affirming Applied Behavior Analysis.Behavior analysis in practice · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Lexicon-Based Sentiment Analysis in Behavioral Research.Perspectives on behavior science · 2024
    Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Humble Behaviorism Redux.Behavior and social issues · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Amel Becirevic1University of Kansas, 4048 Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7555 USA.
Thomas S Critchfield2Illinois State University, Normal, IL USA.
Derek D Reed1University of Kansas, 4048 Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7555 USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Behavior analysis has a marketing problem. Although behavior analysts have speculated about the problems regarding our technical behavior-analytic terminology and how our terminology has hindered the dissemination of behavior analysis to outsiders, few have investigated the social acceptability of the terminology. The present paper reports the general public's reactions to technical behavioral jargon versus non-technical substitute terms that refer to applied behavior-analytic techniques. Two-hundred participants, all non-behavior analysts, were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed a survey on the social acceptability of behavioral jargon and non-technical terms. Specifically, participants rated the acceptability of how the six pairs of terms (technical and non-technical) sounded if the treatments were to be implemented for each of 10 potential populations of clients that behavior analysts typically work with. The results show that, overall, members of the general public found non-technical substitute terms more acceptable than technical behavior-analytic terms. The finding suggests that specialized vocabulary of behavior analysis may create hurdles to the acceptability of applied behavior-analytic services. The implication of these findings suggest the importance of a systematic investigation of listener behavior with respect to behavior analysis terms.

Indexed as

Amazon mechanical turkBehavior analysisDisseminationJargonPublic perceptionSocial acceptabilityTerminology

Identifiers

PMID31976979
PMCPMC6701255

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.