Do you think that most people will break laws and violate traditional moral values if they`re confident that they won`t be caught?

Violation of the Law

2007

Do you think that most people will break laws and violate traditional moral values if they are confident that they would not be caught , you may ask ? Of course , naturally , people will violate the laws if they can guarantee themselves not to be caught . Explaining further , if they are sure that there are no consequences to what they are about to do then of course , they have the greatest tendency to break the law . In cases where they have seen people who violated but did not get

caught , this particular incident will provide them more confidence in themselves that to break the law will not do them any bad consequence , and that they would not even get caught then all the more that they will carry on with their plan

In psychology , the aforementioned may be logically explained by B .F Skinner through his theories known as Positive and Negative Reinforcements (Encarta , 2007 . Explaining further , he defined Positive Reinforcement as something which motivates a certain action simply by an administered reward (Encarta , 2007 . In our case the reward or what motivates the person to do the act , which is violation or breaking of the law , is the fact that , he or she is confident that he or she would not be caught (Encarta , 2007 . It is a positive reinforcement the individual set by himself to motivate him to carry out such an act (Encarta , 2007 . For the purposes of comparison , Negative Reinforcement is technically defined as boosting an action through the removal of an aversive stimulus (Reinforcement , n .d . Again , let us look into the case in question (Reinforcement , n .d . Here , if the individual knows that he or she will be caught violating the law , then surely he or she will no longer carry out such an act (Reinforcement , n .d . Knowing that he or she would be caught is the Negative Reinforcement set here to prevent the act from occurring (Reinforcement , n .d

To explain further , allow me to provide another example : An individual who may want to protest against the government may be motivated to do so especially if he knows that he won 't get caught (Reinforcement , n .d On the other hand , a person may not push through with the plan of returning a wallet he took since he knows this will be a reason for him to get caught and will surely be punished for it (Reinforcement , n .d

References

Encarta (2007 . B .F . Skinner . Retrieved September 24 , 2007 from

HYPERLINK "http /encarta .msn .com /encyclopedia_8 /Skinner_B (urrhus )_F (reder ic .html http /encarta .msn .com /encyclopedia_8 /Skinner_B (urrhus )_F (rederi c .html

Reinforcement (n .d . Retrieved September 24 , 2007 from

HYPERLINK "http /www .psychology .uiowa .edu /Faculty /wasserman /Glossary /reinforcemen t .html http /www .psychology .uiowa .edu /Faculty /wasserman /Glossary /reinforcement .html

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