10/18/2025
During a training with preservice teachers, someone asked me, “Can punishment be neutral?” And I lit up. Questions like that are my favorite because they get right to the heart of how we understand behavior—and how a behavioral approach can help us rethink how we respond to students.
I asked her to explain a bit more, and what she meant was this: if a response is intended to be a punisher but has no actual effect on behavior, is it then a neutral punishment? She was wondering if punishment has to be positive or negative, or if there’s an in-between.
What her question really captured for me is how, as educators, we often decide something is a punisher not because of its impact on behavior, but because we think it’s punishment. That’s where things get tricky, when we start talking about consequences, it doesn’t always line up with our prior understanding of what punishment means. And when we add “positive” and “negative” into the mix, it gets even more complicated. It’s a reminder that what matters most isn’t our intention...it’s the behavior’s response.
This is exactly why I feel so strongly about the role of behavior analysis in schools.
So, what do you think—can punishment ever be neutral?
