File:Leon_Festinger.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
Leon Festinger (1919–1989) was an American psychologist and university teacher. Born in Brooklyn, he died in New York City of cancer. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree, studying under Kurt Zadek Lewin at the University of Iowa after attending the City College of New York. His academic career included positions at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota.
Festinger’s field of work focused on social psychology and cognitive dissonance. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his doctoral students were Stanley Schachter and Elliot Aronson. His published works include *When prophecy fails*, *Social pressures in informal groups*, and *Research methods in the behaviorial sciences*.
Synthesized by Vinony from 37 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 8 May 1919
- Died
- 11 February 1989
- Works
- 19
Top works
- An analysis of inspectors' ratings of check flights as recorded on form ACA 342Z
- Research methods in the behaviorial sciences
- When prophecy fails
- Social pressures in informal groups
- Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1
- Total plays
- 5
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Leon+Festinger">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
· 1957 · cited 17,080x
- A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
· 1954 · cited 14,491x
- Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis
· 2022 · cited 13,914x
- PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet
· 2000 · cited 12,100x
- GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
· 2017 · cited 8,264x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “When there is a range of opinion in the group, communications tend to be directed towards those members whose opinions are at the extremes of the range.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1919-05-08 ) May 8, 1919, New York City, New York, U.S.
- Died
- February 11, 1989 (1989-02-11) (aged 69), New York City, New York, U.S.
- Education
- City College of New York ( BS ) University of Iowa ( MA , PhD )
- Known for
- Cognitive dissonance Effort justification Social comparison theory
- Fields
- Psychology
- Institutions
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Michigan University of Minnesota Stanford University The New School
- Thesis
- Experimental test of a theory of decision (1942)
- Doctoral advisor
- Kurt Lewin
- Doctoral students
- Bertram Raven Stanley Schachter
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Leon
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Brooklyn
- Place of death
- New York City
- Occupation
- university teacher
- Employer
- University of Minnesota
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- atheism
- Academic degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Doctoral advisor
- Kurt Zadek Lewin
- Field of work
- cognitive dissonance
Show 11 more facts
- date of birth
- 1919-05-08
- date of death
- 1989-02-11
- name in native language
- Leon Festinger
- student
- Stanley Schachter
- cause of death
- cancer
- manner of death
- natural causes
- writing language
- English language
- interested in
- social psychology
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
via Wikidata · CC0
~36 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 – 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist who originated the theory of cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. The rejection of the previously dominant behaviorist view of social psychology by demonstrating the inadequacy of stimulus-response conditioning accounts of human behavior is largely attributed to his theories and research. Festinger is also credited with advancing the use of laboratory experimentation in social psychology, although he simultaneously stressed the importance of studying real-life situations, a principle he practiced when personally infiltrating a doomsday cult. He is also known in social network theory for the proximity effect (or propinquity).
Festinger studied psychology under Kurt Lewin, an important figure in modern social psychology, at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1941; however, he did not develop an interest in social psychology until after joining the faculty at Lewin's Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1945. Despite his preeminence in social psychology, Festinger turned to visual perception research in 1964 and then archaeology, history, and the human evolutionary sciences in 1979 until his death in 1989. Following B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Bandura, Festinger was the fifth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Leon Festinger” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.