Thanks for some data on this, although it's all academic and philosophical for me at this time...

This has been a topic on several forums I'm involved in.

Data Mining Reveals How The “Down-Vote” Leads To A Vicious Circle Of Negative Feedback
A classic theory of behavioural psychology predicts that punishment should improve behaviour. But the first study of online voting behaviour in social networks shows exactly the opposite
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"The evidence is that a contributor who is down-voted produces lower quality content in future that is valued even less by others on the network. What’s more, people are more likely to down-vote others after they have been down voted themselves. The result is a vicious spiral of increasingly negative behaviour that is exactly the opposite of the intended effect."

This fits within my understanding of behavior. What lay people "know" about behavior modification is a mix of pop culture and old wive's tales, and is often far removed from successful training.