<p>Behavioral equilibrium is what an organism usually does during its free time, without any constraints on its behavior. A contingent response deficit is a constraint that restricts an organism from approaching its behavioral equilibrium. Human and nonhuman animals are known to regulate their behavior to reduce this deficit, and therefore, reapproach behavioral equilibrium. The current study investigated whether verbal stimuli might have an effect akin to a response deficit. Human participants were given the opportunity to view advertisements or videos across periods of baseline, deficit, and verbal stimuli. Verbal stimuli included “more” and “better” contextual cues as follows: “View more Ads to see better TikTok Vids.” Verbal stimuli were presented during a period of equilibrium, where there was no environmental constraint on behavior. Most participants increased their instrumental advertisement viewing in the same way they increased it to reduce a response deficit. Results indicated that verbal stimuli disrupt behavioral equilibrium, causing human participants to deviate from equilibrium or abandon it altogether.</p>