reward and punishment
Incentive and deterrent
Reward and punishment is the paired system of consequences used to encourage desired behavior and discourage unwanted behavior.
The phrase often appears in discussions of parenting, education, animal training, and moral philosophy: The study examined whether reward and punishment affects children's motivation differently.
In religious contexts, it refers to divine judgment—heaven and hell, karma, or cosmic justice for one's actions.
- carrotEdible orange taproot
- stickThin piece of wood
- carrot and stickReward plus punishment approach
- good cop bad copAlternating hostile and sympathetic interrogators
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
incentive · positive reinforcement · consequence · negative reinforcement · praise · pat on the back · penalty · slap on the wrist · justice · just deserts · obedience · treat · spanking · bonus · detention · gold star · sticker chart · timeout
- manipulationgaslighting, guilt tripping, blame-shifting, brainwashing, guilt trip
- Legalismfa, legal reforms
- Japanese folkloreyokai, kitsune, tanuki, tengu, oni
reward and punishmentindifference
Lack of interest
inaction · neglect · laissez-faire · unresponsiveness · disengagement
reward and punishmentunconditional acceptance
Embrace requiring nothing in return
unconditional love · grace · non-judgment · forgiveness · mercy
reward and punishmentintrinsic motivation
Desire from within oneself
self-determination · autonomy · internal drive · free will · self-regulation
reward, punishment, rewards, rewarded, rewarding, rewardingly, unrewarded, unrewarding, punish