Years of research in psychology has shown that rewards and punishments can be very effective in changing behavior. But, at the same time, they can create an addiction to rewards and punishments.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Typically, if you reward something, you get more of it. You punish something, you get less of it. And our businesses have been built for the last 150 years very much on that kind of motivational scheme.
You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.
You can only punish your body so long before you're stuck with a horrendous inability to do things you'd previously been able to do.
I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.
Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.
I think there's a danger in how we can get addicted to the things that reaffirm to us who we are. For example, Facebook; people who make these Facebook posts about what's happening to them, just so people will chime in and give them positive reinforcement.
You either believe that people respond to authority, or that they respond to kindness and inclusion. I'm obviously in the latter camp. I think that people respond better to reward than punishment.
For example, I tend to personally reward myself for specific acts of exceptional discipline.
Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.