Leon Festinger: biography of this social psychologist

Considered one of the leading psychologists of the 20th century, the life of Leon Festinger is quite interesting, but also anecdotal.

Although he at first he was not much interested in social psychology with the passage of time he ended becoming a social psychologist and, in addition, he would be the father of two of the great theories within this countryside.

Let's discover the life of this researcher, his professional career and his two main theories, through a biography of Leon Festinger.

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Short Biography of Leon Festinger

Leon Festinger is one of the greatest social psychologists of the twentieth century, despite the fact that at first he did not want to be.

In fact, for him this branch of behavioral science was too lax, something that did not interest him much. However, although as a young man he felt more interest in statistics applied to psychological science, he would end up making a significant contribution to social psychology. Not surprisingly, he is the fifth most cited psychologist of the 20th century, second only to B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Bandura.

Early years

Leon Festinger was born in New York, United States, on May 8, 1919, in the bosom of a Jewish family of Russian origin. We know from his childhood that he attended Boys' High School in Brooklyn.

At the age of 20, in 1939, he received his BA in psychology from the City College of New York. Later he would transfer to the University of Iowa, where he would study under the direction of Kurt lewin and he would get his doctorate in child psychology in 1942.

As a young man, Festinger was not at all interested in social psychology and, in fact, he did not undergo any training in his entire life to be a social psychologist. Going to Iowa he was only interested in Lewin's work on live systems. However, it so happened that by the time Festinger moved into the institution, Lewin took a more social psychology-oriented view.

Despite this surprise, Festinger continued to study under Lewin, although he did not give up his interest in statistics and the level of aspiration as a psychological construct, developing a quantitative model of decision making. The young Leon Festinger considered that social psychology was a psychological branch with a too vague research method, and that he wanted to work in more "rigorous" and "concrete" branches.

Festinger would work as a research associate in Iowa from 1941 to 1943 and later work as a statesman at the Committee for the Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots at the University of Rochester, specifically between 1943 and 1945. They were the hard years of World War II in which psychological research was most in demand, not only to know the aptitude of the combatants, but also to discover ways to psychologically destabilize the enemy.

Adulthood and career path

In 1943 Leon Festinger married Mary Oliver Ballou, a pianist with whom he would have three children: Catherine, Richard and Kurt. Despite the fact that the marriage brought three children into the world, it ended up dissolving and Festinger would remarry later, in 1968, this time with Trudy Bradley, a professor of social work at the University of New York. York.

In 1945 Festinger joined the newly created Kurt Lewin Group Dynamics Research Center as an assistant professor., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was in this institution that Festinger would become, without wanting it or drinking it, a social psychologist by and by. It was also at MIT that he began his research on social communication and peer pressure, which marked a major turnaround in his interests in psychology.

After Lewin's death in 1947 Festinger went to work at the University of Michigan in 1948. He later transferred to the University of Minnesota in 1951, and then went on to Stanford University in 1955. It was in these years that Leon Festinger would write his most influential article on the theory of social comparison and also on the theory of cognitive dissonance.. These two theories are one of the most important contributions in the field of social psychology of the twentieth century.

Thanks to this he was gaining a lot of reputation and recognition, being awarded the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution from the American Psychological Association. Its impact was also great outside the field of psychology, being considered one of the ten most relevant scientists in the United States by Fortune magazineshortly after he published his theory of social comparison.

Although his fame was increasing, Leon Festinger decided to change the focus of his study in 1964, preferring to investigate the visual system, especially eye movement and perception of the colour. In 1968 he returned to his native New York, continuing to study perception at the New School for Social Research. However, he would end up closing his laboratory in 1979.

Last years

In 1983, four years after his laboratory had closed, Festinger expressed some disagreement with what he and his field had accomplished. He believed that, despite having been working in social psychology for forty years, little had really been achieved.. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that he had neglected many social issues that needed to be addressed psychologically, and that in turn he had paid attention to rather trivial aspects.

Motivated by this disagreement, he decided to study the fossil records and contact Stephen Jay. Gould, a geologist and evolutionary biologist, to discuss ideas about the evolution of human behavior and visit sites archaeological. His intention was to learn more about how the first human beings behaved socially from the remains of their tools. His efforts resulted in the publication of his book "The Human Legacy" (1983) in which he described how human beings evolved and developed in more complex societies.

Among his latest works tried to understand what motivated a culture to reject or accept a new idea. This he tried to relate to the development and evolution of various societies throughout history, comparing how the acceptance or rejection of the same idea in two different cultures had led to changes in the mentality of their members. He was working on a book about it but sadly, cancer caught up with him before he could publish anything. He decided not to undergo treatment, and passed away on February 11, 1989.

Theories of Leon Festinger

As we have commented, there are two fundamental theories with which Festinger contributed significantly in the field of social psychology: the theory of cognitive dissonance and the theory of comparison Social.

Theory of cognitive dissonance

People have all kinds of beliefs, there is no doubt about that. Nevertheless, What happens when two or more of these well-established beliefs come into conflict? We feel uncomfortable because our value system has ceased to be in harmony and is now in tension. For example, if we consider ourselves anti-racist but discover that our favorite singer is openly racist, it is clear that he is not going to leave us indifferent.

We call this conflict between two or more contradictory beliefs cognitive dissonance. According to this theory, there is in each person a certain tendency to maintain coherence and harmony between their behaviors and beliefs. When this coherence is broken, dissonance occurs, which causes discomfort in the person.

To stop feeling uncomfortable, the person will have to change some of the factors that cause this dissonance. Typically, there are three ways to reduce cognitive dissonance.

1. Change attitudes to create greater coherence

One of the ways to reduce cognitive dissonance is to change or eliminate one of the beliefs, behaviors or attitudes, especially the one that has started the discomfort. This route is really difficult to apply, since it implies change, a process that costs us a lot.

For example, if we just discovered that our favorite singer is racist and we are anti-racists, what we would do would be stop idolizing that singer and not continue listening to his music or even throw away all the discography we have of him to the trash.

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2. Acquire new information that reduces dissonance

This option consists of incorporating a new belief or attitude that reduces the tension between the previous beliefs. It consists of reducing discomfort by looking for something new that allows us to justify our attitudes.

In the case of the example, it would consist of looking for information that allows us to understand why he says he is a racist, in what type of environment grew up and assess whether we are really acting appropriately canceling or rejecting him for his ideas rather than for his music.

3. Reduce the importance of beliefs

This third option consists of reducing the value of the beliefs or ideas that we possess, justifying behaviors that, although they may be harmful, make us happy. That is, it consists of relativizing beliefs to reduce the tension between them.

In the case of the racist singer, it would be to say that the fact that this singer is racist is not so bad, considering that, at the after all, everyone is to a greater or lesser degree racist and the fact that they have recognized it is no reason to reject it.

Social comparison theory

The other great contribution to social psychology by Leon Festinger is his 1954 theory of social comparison. This theory is based on factors such as personal self-evaluation and self-concept. Festinger argued that we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, establishing a good or bad concept of ourselves based on what we see or perceive from other people. Our perception of our abilities are actually a mix between what we really master and what we think we have.

Our self-concept is directly linked to what we perceive of others, which we use as a kind of standard of what is right and what is wrong to be. Of course, this self-concept will change depending on the context in which we find ourselves. Depending on the characteristics of other people and how such traits are perceived as positive or negative, our view of ourselves will consequently be more favorable or unfavorable.

This can be seen clearly with the canon of beauty, both masculine and feminine. Although it is true that in recent years a more open image of what is understood by beautiful men and women has been accepted, The truth is that the traditional canon continues to exert a lot of weight: the man must be muscular and the woman thin, with which, socially acceptable is that men go to the gym to gain muscle mass and women do it to reduce their percentage of fat.

This is clearly visible in the media, especially in movies and in hygiene advertisements. This makes guys who are not stringy and slightly overweight women look less desirable. underestimate and even develop eating behavior problems or, at the very least, dysmorphia bodily.

But do not make the mistake of thinking that the theory of social comparison is limited to body image. More intellectual, economic and social aspects are also taken into account. For example, a child who goes to school and it turns out that her classmates are the children of parents with more money than yours, seeing that these have better quality backpacks, cases and clothes you can not help but feel bad about it.

Bibliographic references:

• Festinger, L. (1983). The Human Legacy. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Festinger, L. (Ed.). (1980). Retrospections on Social Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.