Behaviorism paper 4: “Conditioned Emotional Reactions” by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920)

Part of a blog series covering the seminal papers in learning—this entry continues the Behaviorism sub-series

In February 1920, John B. Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner published “Conditioned Emotional Reactions” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. It is a short paper—fourteen pages—describing a single case study of a single infant, Albert B., reared “almost from birth in a hospital environment” at the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children in Baltimore. It is also one of the most consequential papers in the history of psychology, and one of the most ethically damning.