 FACT: Near the beginning of the film Bill Murrays character is  conducting an experiment, in which he says he is using Negative  Reinforcement. Two test subjects guess the symbol on the back of the  card. Murray’s character administers electric shock for wrong  answers, and gives praise for correct answers. (Of course, hes  cheating, but on with the content critique.) Psychologically and  Scientifically speaking, Negative Reinforcement is the subtraction  of a variable in order to reinforce/increase the frequency of a  desired behavior. Bill Murrays character is actually engaging in  Positive Punishment, the addition of a variable/stimulus (in this  case the electric shock) designed to decrease the frequency of a  behavior (wrong answers). In Behavioral Psychology, Negative and  Positive do not refer to traditional ideas of good or bad but rather  the addition or subtraction of a variable in order to enhance or  discourage a given behavior.