Well, a lot depends on what we mean by “effective” and “overall.”
For example, it’s a common observation by animal trainers that positive reinforcement training—that is, rewarding the behavior that you want and ignoring the behavior that you don’t want—is a more effective form of behavior modification than many alternatives… in particular, than punishing the behavior you don’t want.
That said, punishment is the fastest way of getting that behavior to stop in the environment you punish it in. And punishing it severely and consistently enough can also be very effective in getting it to stop in all environments.
The problem is knock-on effects. For example, if I beat my dog every time she barks around me, she’ll quickly stop barking around me. She will also most likely stop choosing to be around me at all. Whether that was an effective form of behavioral modification depends a lot on my goals.
(There are other problems as well… for example, dispensing punishment can be rewarding for some people in some situations, which creates potential for escalations.)
The same principles apply to modifying human behavior, though it’s generally counterproductive to call attention to it.
So, yes, praising civil behavior is an effective way of getting more of it, especially if you aren’t seen as praising it in order to get more of it. More generally, rewarding civil behavior (e.g., by differentially attending to it, by awarding it karma, and so forth) is a way of getting more of it.
All of that said… there are more effective methods. Modeling the desired behavior can be way more cost-effective than rewarding it, for example, depending on the scale of the group and the number of modelers.
Mildly interesting fact: I would have used capital letters in when I said “This doesn’t require murdering 6,790 people,” if not for this comment.
Is this type of praise, overall, effective in keeping the tone civil? Is it more effective than other methods?
Well, a lot depends on what we mean by “effective” and “overall.”
For example, it’s a common observation by animal trainers that positive reinforcement training—that is, rewarding the behavior that you want and ignoring the behavior that you don’t want—is a more effective form of behavior modification than many alternatives… in particular, than punishing the behavior you don’t want.
That said, punishment is the fastest way of getting that behavior to stop in the environment you punish it in. And punishing it severely and consistently enough can also be very effective in getting it to stop in all environments.
The problem is knock-on effects. For example, if I beat my dog every time she barks around me, she’ll quickly stop barking around me. She will also most likely stop choosing to be around me at all. Whether that was an effective form of behavioral modification depends a lot on my goals.
(There are other problems as well… for example, dispensing punishment can be rewarding for some people in some situations, which creates potential for escalations.)
The same principles apply to modifying human behavior, though it’s generally counterproductive to call attention to it.
So, yes, praising civil behavior is an effective way of getting more of it, especially if you aren’t seen as praising it in order to get more of it. More generally, rewarding civil behavior (e.g., by differentially attending to it, by awarding it karma, and so forth) is a way of getting more of it.
All of that said… there are more effective methods. Modeling the desired behavior can be way more cost-effective than rewarding it, for example, depending on the scale of the group and the number of modelers.