Applied Behavior Analysis and the Autism Industrial Complex
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power.
The 2026 annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International (ABAI) will soon be held in San Francisco. As far as I know, it is the largest gathering of behavior analysts in the world. Thousands of us descend on some part of the U.S., en masse. It is a sight to behold, and I look forward to it all year. It’s the only conference where you can still find enough talks that showcase the depth and diversity of the field to keep you busy for several days of conferencing. And by that I mean that it is the only conference where you can, just barely, spend all your time attending talks that are not about autism.
Indeed, an anthropologist studying the odd creature called Behaviorist Analyticus would have no choice but to conclude that it was a practitioner in a niche field within special education, concerned primarily with autism spectrum disorder. This conclusion would be borne out by several key facts.
First, most credentialed (RBT, BCaBA, BCBA) Behaviorists Analyticus say they primarily serve autistic individuals (83%) and/or individuals diagnosed with intellectual or developmental disabilities (3%). Of the few remaining behavior analysts who identify otherwise, such as practicing organizational behavior management (.39%) or working in higher education (.4%) or professional supervision (.16%), many still end up in or around the special education classroom. The organizational behavior is what is happening at the autism service agencies, the professors teach those who will serve in special education settings, and the supervisors supervise those providing special education services. I suspect even many who say they work in (not higher) education (6.34%) probably at least dabble in special education.
Second, the journals written and read by Behaviorist Analyticus tend to lean heavily on research focused on autism or intellectual/developmental disabilities, and on conceptual and professional matters related to the same. Of the 9 articles published in the most recent issue (Spring 2026) of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the flagship applied research journal in the field, 6 were focused on autism or developmental disabilities, and 5 of those included autistic participants, specifically. It wasn’t a special issue, just a regular old issue. Even Perspectives on Behavior Science, the nondenominational mouthpiece of ABAI, recently published a special issue devoted to “Challenges to applied behavior analysis,” although it was really devoted to papers about autism and service delivery. Of the 17 articles, 8 were solely or mostly about autism service delivery and autism was at least mentioned in 6 others. A few years before that issue, in the same journal, Bill Heward, Tom Critchfield, Derek Reed, Ronnie Detrich, and Jonathan Kimball published what, at first blush, was an encouraging review of the many (350) research areas that applied behavior analysis has touched. A closer reading reveals something less encouraging. Almost all the areas were touched only once or twice. Love ‘em and leave ‘em, apparently. Few programmatic research lines developed. No big problems solved.
Third, the sessions presented and attended by Behaviorist Analyticus at regional and national conferences revolve almost entirely around issues related to service delivery in special education. In the program for the upcoming meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International in San Francisco, CA, autism dominates. The program is divided into 15 areas, with the top 2 entries being Autism (AUT) and Developmental Disabilities (DDA), with the third being Education (EDUC). There are 170 sessions in the AUT area and 88 in DDA. The next largest is EDUC at 74 sessions. There is a lot of overlap across those three areas, with multiples sessions being categorized in two of the three areas, so there are, conservatively, about 300 sessions just in those areas, focused on Autism and/or DDA. And here’s the kicker, close inspection reveals that even many sessions in the other large areas, such as Verbal Behavior and Cognition (VBC) and Clinical /Family/Behavioral Medicine (CBM), are cross-listed with AUT or DDA. So the total number of presentations and posters is probably closer to 400 or more. By contrast, there are 54 sessions categorized as the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)—and even 8 of those are cross-listed with the AUT category. Looking at the programs of recent or upcoming state conferences reveals an even heavier, sometimes exclusive, focus on autism.
Fourth, the professional organizations populated by Behaviorist Analyticus are run by those working in autism service agencies or in jobs adjacent to them. Of the 47 state and regional organizations affiliated with ABAi that had leadership information available online, 97% (of 422 people who could be identified) worked in the areas of autism and developmental or intellectual disabilities, mostly in practice at service agencies, and many fewer in academic and research positions.[1] This is a staggering statistic.
The largest professional organization for behavior analysts, the Association for Behavior Analysis International, has done an admirable job populating its Executive Committee with people representing different interests.[2] They are drawing from the largest pool of behavior analysts possible, though. State and regional organizations can’t draw from that far and wide. Finding someone to serve the organization that doesn’t also serve the autism community is like finding Waldo. Hence the 97%. Absolutely staggering.
THE RISE OF MISPLACED POWER
When he left office in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered a farewell address that warned the American people about a growing military industrial complex. If you’re unfamiliar, the term was used to describe the intersection of the military, which serves the (safety and security) needs of the nation, and the arms industry, which serves the needs of the military and gains financially by doing so. In his words:
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
The concern was that the defense industry will become too large and too powerful an economic force, employing so many and driving infrastructure development around it. The consequences being many, including fear mongering to keep support for defense funding, so much money and other resources pouring into the complex that much less is left for other, equally or more important areas. And here we are. Welcome to today.
Now, I am not the first to think something similar is going on in the autism world, or to invoke the phrase “Autism Industrial Complex,” but those coining it before me have mostly been referring to the broader capitalization of an autism industry within the larger society, not specific to behavior analysis.[3]
In behavior analysis, the Autism Industrial Complex involves the major professional organizations and the many individuals and clinical organizations (including the private equity firms behind many of them) that provide autism services. The behavior analysis profession—through its associations, credentialing bodies, and training programs—promotes, if not defines, the science of behavior analysis, as well as the standards and scope of practice. The autism services industry operationalizes those standards through service delivery, which necessarily involves staffing and billing. So the profession provides legitimacy, workforce pipelines, and regulation, while the industry provides employment, funding, and professional and political influence.
Many behavior analysts move between these domains, and, over time, this arrangement can embed autism-focused decisions into research, training, credentialing, and funding structures. The big risk is what we are already seeing: the autism focus can come to dominate, and therefore define, the science and practice of behavior analysis, essentially starving out other interests.
DISCLOSURES, RECUSALS, AND GUARDRAILS
Before you flame me in the comments, I realize that it only stands to reason that, if most people in the field have connections to autism service delivery, most people willing to participate in state organizations will be from that group, most people served by those organizations will be from that group, and those people will need professional supports such as specialized research journals and conferences, not to mention professional organizations that will go to bat for their economic interests.
No matter. The fact that this all presents clear and present conflicts of interest still cannot be ignored. The people making decisions about the activities of the organizations have a vested interest in those activities being aimed at autism research and service delivery, and if those organizations spend money on things like continuing education, grants and scholarships, and lobbying state legislatures and other entities for funding for services, they stand to directly benefit.
To be clear, I am not trying to paint those working in autism as power-hungry villains bent on destruction. But even the noblest of the noble can make decisions that are not in the best interest of the larger field, whether they realize it or not. Eisenhower noted as much in his famous address, saying, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” (Emphasis added by me.) So, too, must behavior analysts stand guard.
I am mostly just stirring the pot. We all know it’s much easier to identify problems than offer solutions. Still, I can suggest a few general areas for improvement, fully aware that they are easy to say, harder to do. Behavior analysts should, at the very least, take conflicts of interest more seriously, make concerted efforts to recruit diverse (in terms of specialization) professionals into leadership positions, and invite diverse (in terms of specialization) professionals to present at our many conferences. And let me throw a bomb into the building. Maybe those in organizational leadership positions who work in service delivery should recuse themselves from decisions that could result in organizational money being spent on efforts that would directly affect their bottom line, like lobbying for service reimbursement, etc. (Now you can flame me in the comments.) The problem is that if they do recuse themselves, there will be nobody left to vote.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
But things are not all bad. The military industrial complex provides many jobs, many of which are high paying, and it provides important infrastructure to many communities. And those employed help to provide an important function: keeping us safe from harm inflicted by outside aggressors, at least in the best of cases. The autism industrial complex does the same for the field of behavior analysis. It provides many jobs, many of which are high paying, all the while performing an important function: helping autistic individuals and their families, at least in the best of cases.
Moreover, on some level, it is entirely appropriate that many of the people making decisions in our professional organizations typify the people they are representing. If the majority of those decisions and resulting actions are to the benefit of those providing and receiving autism services, that seems defensible. They are, far and away, the largest segment of our professional field. Without them, well, there really is no behavior analysis to speak of. The rooms and hallways of the universities and conference centers would be empty, as would the pages of the journals.
So we find ourselves here. Most of the jobs in behavior analysis are in the Complex, so most students are taught to work in the Complex, so most academics and their labs are in or near the Complex, so the books and articles published are mostly about the Complex, so when behavior analysts gather they talk mostly about the Complex. It is a self-perpetuating system. Behavior analysts press the levers associated with the richest schedules of reinforcement. But that means they aren’t pressing other levers. And that means the science doesn’t advance the way it could, and the scope of our application and practice is not expanded. What if they someday “cure” autism or, more likely, stop funding hours and hours of intervention services? Do we risk implosion as a consequence of our specialization.
[1] I would like to thank three of my graduate students, Annika Cook, Sophia Livingston, and Ana Prieto Razo for poring over the websites of the many state behavior analysis organizations to identify the people in leadership positions and then scouring the web to find their affiliations, publication records, etc. The opinions presented here are mine, though, and should not be unfairly attributed to them. Blame me.
[2] The Association for Professional Behavior Analysts (APBA), not so much. Perhaps that is to be expected. APBA represents behavior analysts in practice and almost all of those practice by providing services to people on the spectrum. So, to best represent their constituents, if not the field, APBA should probably fill their board with like-minded people.
[3] When aimed at the field of behavior analysis, the term misses the mark, to some extent, because to square with Eisenhower’s catchy phrase it would need to be something like “Behavior-Analysis Autism Complex.” But that is just clumsy and obscures the inspiration. So “Autism Industrial Complex” it will be.
Coming to ABA thru the gateway of dog training, it was a real eye opener to find out so many people had bad feelings about even the acronym without knowing what it meant because of its colored history with developmentally challenged kids— I’ve talked to dog trainers who use ABA but would never call it ABA for this reason. I know that this isn’t what this post is really about but felt worth mentioning. I can say that, while, like you, I believe it has an important place in the world of autism AND should be more woven into lives outside of the special ed world, I also think that its early history in that particular field led to bad PR that still impacts the way people outside this world have — people who don’t know what the science of behavior is, or who think it’s a pseudo science! If only it were taught in grade schools alongside of biology … Anyway, thanks for this essay. I got a lot out of it.
Well said. Hopefully we will learn from the successes in autism and in insinuating PBS into public schools, and create other stable niches for behavior analysis so the field does not become one dimensional.