Leadership Responses in Metacontingencies: Concept and Implications

Abstract

Recent empirical research has fostered discussion about the dynamics involved in interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBC) in metacontingencies. To understand these dynamics, numerous experiments in the field have manipulated verbal interactions among participants, observed participants emitting instructions and differentially consequencing the responses of others, and concluded that these interactions facilitate the selection of culturants. The present article argues that these types of responses involved in IBC can be understood as examples of leadership responses, which include other types of interactions among participants beyond those involving verbal exchanges. Our goal is to highlight how different response topographies emitted by one or more participants can be interpreted as leadership responses, whether verbal or non-verbal, which aid in the selection of culturants. We discuss how, in metacontingency experiments, various verbal events have been categorized under the umbrella of participant verbal interaction. We examine how participants verbal interaction indeed facilitates culturant selection but argue that not all verbal interaction serves this function, just some of them, such as instructing and presenting differential consequences. Based on this, we classify these specific verbal responses, as well as other non-verbal responses, as leadership responses. We propose a definition of leadership responses grounded in various literatures, both experimental and non-experimental: responses emitted by an individual (i.e., leader) that modify or maintain the responses of another individual(s) (i.e., followers) and are under the control of specific consequences produced by the follower(s)’ responses according to criteria defined by an external agent. Furthermore, we demonstrate that leadership responses can have different topographies, not limited to verbal responses, and provide examples of non-verbal leadership responses in metacontingencies. We also argue that the verbal responses facilitating culturant selection belong to the broader class of leadership responses, which includes certain types of verbal events but not all. We argue that the assertion that verbal interaction facilitates culturant selection can conceal leader-follower dynamics involved in IBC. Finally, we defend the centrality of leadership responses for the analysis of culturant selection structure and dynamics and discuss its implications for culturo-behavior science.