Leon Festinger: Biography of This Social Psychologist

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

Although at first he was not very interested in social psychology, over time he ended up becoming a social psychologist and, in addition, he would be the father of two of the great theories within this field.

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

Brief biography of Leon Festinger

Leon Festinger is one of the greatest social psychologists of the 20th century, even though he initially did not want to be one.

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 interested in statistics applied to psychological science, he would end up contributing significantly to social psychology. No wonder he is the fifth most cited psychologist of the 20th century, surpassed only by BF Skinner, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud and Albert Bandura.

Early years

Leon Festinger was born in New York, United States, on May 8, 1919, within a Jewish family of Russian origin. From his childhood we know that he attended Boys’ High School in Brooklyn.

At the age of 20, in 1939, he received his degree in psychology from the City College of New York. He would later move to the University of Iowa, where he would study under Kurt Lewin and earn 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 type of training in his entire life to be a social psychologist. Going to Iowa he was only interested in Lewin’s work on systems in tension. However, it so happened that by the time Festinger moved to the institution, Lewin took a more social psychology-oriented view.

Despite this surprise, Festinger continued studying under Lewin’s tutelage, 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 research method that was too vague, 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 then work as a statistician on the Aircraft Pilot Selection and Training Committee at the University of Rochester, specifically between 1943 and 1945. They were the hard years of the Second World War in which psychological research was the most in demand not only to know the aptitude of the combatants, but also to discover ways to psychologically destabilize the enemy.

Adulthood and professional career

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

In 1945 Festinger joined Kurt Lewin’s newly created Group Dynamics Research Center as an assistant professor, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was in that institution that Festinger would become, without meaning to or drinking it, a social psychologist through and through. It was also at MIT where he began his research on social communication and peer pressure, which marked an important change of direction in his interests in psychology.

After Lewin’s death in 1947 Festinger went to work at the University of Michigan in 1948. He later moved to the University of Minnesota in 1951, and then went 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 some of the most important contributions to the field of social psychology of the 20th century.

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

Although his fame was increasing, Leon Festinger decided to change his focus of study in 1964, preferring to investigate the visual system, especially eye movement and color perception. 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 closing his laboratory, Festinger expressed some dissatisfaction with what he and his field had achieved. He considered that, despite having spent forty years working in social psychology, little had really been achieved Furthermore, he believed that many social issues that needed to be addressed psychologically had been left aside, and that in turn attention had been paid 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 archaeological sites. 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 into more complex societies.

Among his latest works tried to understand what motivated a culture to reject or accept a new idea He tried to relate this 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 its members. He was working on a book about it but, unfortunately, cancer caught him before he could publish anything. He decided not to undergo treatment, and he died on February 11, 1989.

Theories of Leon Festinger

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

Cognitive dissonance theory

People have all kinds of beliefs, there is no doubt about that. However, What happens when two or more of these well-established beliefs come into conflict? We feel uncomfortable because our value system is no longer 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 will not leave us indifferent.

We call this conflict between two or more contradictory beliefs cognitive dissonance. According to this theory, there is a certain tendency in each person 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 started the discomfort This path is really difficult to apply, since it involves changing, a process that costs us a lot.

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

2. Acquire new information that reduces dissonance

This option consists of incorporating a new belief or attitude that reduces the tension between 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 seeking information that allows us to understand why he claims to be racist, what type of environment he grew up in, and assessing whether we are really acting appropriately by canceling or rejecting him for his ideas instead of his music.

3. Reduce the importance of beliefs

This third option consists of reducing the value of the beliefs or ideas that we have, 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 think that the fact that this singer is racist is not a big deal, considering that, after all, everyone is racist to a greater or lesser extent and the fact that he has recognized it It is no reason to reject it.

Social comparison theory

Leon Festinger’s other great contribution to social psychology is his theory of social comparison from 1954. 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, in reality, a mix between what we really master and what we believe we have.

Our self-concept is directly linked to what we perceive from others, which we use as a kind of standard for what is right and 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 as a beautiful man and woman 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, Therefore, what is socially acceptable is for men to go to the gym to gain muscle mass and women to do so to reduce their fat percentage.

This is clearly visible in the media, especially in films and hygiene advertisements. This makes guys who are not fit and women who are slightly overweight look less desirable, undervalue themselves, and may even develop eating problems or, at the very least, body dysmorphia.

But One should 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 his classmates are children of parents with more money than his own, seeing that they have better quality backpacks, pencil cases and clothes, he will not be able to help but feel bad about it.