Daughter in a box
The
daughter in a box story, which claimed that
B.F. Skinner raised his daughter in a box like a lab animal, has been dismissed by historians as an
urban legend. However, while the exaggerated versions of the story that circulate certainly are legendary (and some may have been wilfullly embroidered to damage Skinner, whose
radical behaviorism was unpopular with many other psychologists), it is true that Skinner devised a "baby tender", for his younger daughter. It was essentially an improved crib that was enclosed and heated to enhance the baby's safety, like an enlarged hospital incubator. The design of this device did make use of Skinner's behaviorist philosophy and his experience of devising automated experimental apparatus for use with animals, but it was in no sense an experimental chamber or "Skinner box", nor was the baby (now a successful artist living in
London) confined in it. Skinner described the baby tender in an article for the
Lady's Home Journal entitled "Baby in a box", and this was re-published in his collection of essays, "Cumulative Record".
References