The PAX Good Behavior Game: One Model for Evolving a More Nurturing Society

This paper describes the culture and components of the PAX Good Behavior Game and offers it as one model for how to enhance the well-being of populations through the diffusion of nurturing practices into several venues of society. The PAX components, also known as evidence-based kernels, are proposed to be useful in classrooms, families, organizations, criminal justice, and in improving public discussion and government. Kernels affect behavior in the short- and long-term through combinations of antecedents, reinforcers, relational networks, and physiological effects. Identifying common strategies, tools, and clear targets of change is suggested as a way to work towards evolving freely available evidence-based tools that can be combined to improve social conditions in multiple contexts.