Positive reinforcement in social media: which description is correct?

• A. Increasing behaviors by presenting negative stimuli, such as timeouts.
• B. Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as receiving notifications from a friend on social media.
• C. Decreasing behaviors by removing rewards.
• D. Punishing users for posts.

Answer: (B)

Positive reinforcement means adding a pleasant consequence to increase how often a behavior occurs. In social media, when you post and then receive a like, a comment, or a notification, that positive outcome is given after the behavior, which makes you more likely to post again or keep engaging with the platform. This is exactly what strengthens the behavior: a desirable stimulus follows the action. The other descriptions describe adding unpleasant stimuli (punishment) or removing rewards, which don’t reinforce the behavior.