New York: Taplinger, 1977. It would not be until three years after completing his doctoral studies that Festinger immersed [himself] in the field [of social psychology] with all its difficulties, vaguenesses, and challenges (Festinger, 1980, p. 237). Building collaborative networks among psychologists and graduate students went beyond the United States as Festinger created and directed the Committee of Transnational Social Psychology, and participated in its Summer Schools at which young scholars received training and at which were held scientific colloquia. My graduate education did nothing to cure that. The actual subjects tried to persuade the other discussion partners. One was that the level of cognitive dissonance would decrease as the incentive to comply with the conflict situation was increased. (2003). Later Research Interests . I never had a course at Iowa in social psychology either. What drew Festinger to Iowa were Lewins ideas, developed with his Berlin group, on tension systems and the remembering and completion of interrupted tasks, force fields and Umweg situations (Festinger, 1980, p. 237). Festinger claims his youthful penchant for rigor led him to pursue further research on aspiration for his masters thesis and to develop a mathematical model of decision making for his dissertation. "Festinger, 1980, p. 237, After graduating, Festinger worked as a research associate at Iowa from 1941 to 1943, and then as a statistician for the Committee on Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots at the University of Rochester from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. To many, he rearticulated the relation between stimulus and response by focusing on what goes on between the two, looking at the relation and interactions among the contents of the life space (Heider, 1957, p. 207), and perhaps even proposing work that lies astride the junction of general psychology, the psychology of personality, and social psychology (Bruner, 1957, p. 153). Elected to the American Academy of Sciences in 1959 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1972, Festinger was celebrated in 1980 by the Distinguished Senior Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Cognitive dissonance continues to be used in the context of cults, religions, or other groups connected by similar beliefs. "Schachter, 1994, p. 102,
(2011). For example, if someone decided never to eat candy bars because they are unhealthy, but then ate one with a friend, they might try to reduce their cognitive dissonance by deciding it is okay to a eat candy bar with friends. Meet 5 of the Worlds Computer Programming Prodigies, 7 of the Best-Performing Cryptocurrencies and their Founders. In so doing, he showed how the pressures to uniformity, hypothesized in the earlier article, arose from the process of social comparison. (2016). Bob drinks a beer, and to deal with the cognitive dissonance of going against his beliefs, he decides it is okay to drink beers when with friends. Close proximity or propinquity was thus found to be key to small group and/or friendship formation. We provide you with news from the entertainment industry. Comparison leads to pressures toward uniformity (i.e., similarity), but the tendency to compare will cease if others are too different in dimensions that are related to the ability or opinion at issue. As he saw it, the laboratory could limit theory and research because one has purified the thing so that you can see whether or not what you are looking for is there. To Festinger, switching back and forth between laboratory studies and studies in the real world, or field studies, as he referred to them, helped to clarify theory and get hunches and that kind of thing (Patnoe, 1988, p. 255). First, we might change our beliefs. Festinger realized that progress in any science required methods appropriate to that field. Festinger, L. (1949). An empirical test of a quantitative theory of decision. Perspectives on Cognitive Dissonance. An important early research project was based on attitude surveys of residents in married student housing. ' for 24 hours is shown" '+ Miller, J., & Festinger, L. (1977). Groups (or clubs) were formed of previously unacquainted individuals who were asked to discuss various issues. He was interested in trying to understand how people make sense of things when beliefs and actions don't match. - Definition, Theory & Examples, Vertical Thinking: Definition, Method & Examples, Motivation and Emotion: Tutoring Solution, Developmental Psychology: Tutoring Solution, Theories of Social Psychology: Tutoring Solution, Psychological Disorders and Health: Tutoring Solution, Psychological Treatments: Tutoring Solution, Statistics, Tests and Measurement: Tutoring Solution, Human Growth and Development: Certificate Program, Research Methods in Psychology: Certificate Program, Psychology 103: Human Growth and Development, FTCE School Psychologist PK-12 (036) Prep, Research Methods in Psychology: Homework Help Resource, UExcel Abnormal Psychology: Study Guide & Test Prep, Research Methods in Psychology: Tutoring Solution, Cognitive Dissonance: Definition, Theory & Examples, Piaget and Disequilibrium: Definition & Theory, Cognitive Dissonance & Post-Purchase Process, Cognitive Dissonance in Marketing: Definition & Examples, The Importance of Disconfirming Information, Reducing Your Own Unconscious Bias & Microaggressions at Work, Mandatory Reading List for Psychology 316: Advanced Social Psychology, Brown-Peterson Task: Technique & Procedure, Evolutionary View of Cognition on Conditional Reasoning Theory, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. To test the theory, Festinger and his students conducted a series of laboratory experiments. Cognitive elements that conflict with each other are said to be dissonant, while those that are consistent with each other are termed consonant. We provide you with news from the entertainment industry. A second significant influence was Lewins conceptual framework of goal valences, goal potencies, and restraining forces, a framework used by Tamara Dembo and Sybille Escalona in their research on aspirations to attain a goal. In Festingers study, the impact of functional distance was seen from the fact that lower floor residents who lived next to the stairway were more likely than other lower floor residents. Hertzman, M., & Festinger, L. (1940). Festinger wrote several books on his landmark research. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1968. People going through cognitive dissonance will find some rationale for whatever is causing the conflict, or they may choose to ignore the event in question altogether. Dissonance, Hypocrisy, and the Self-Concept. In Cognitive Dissonance, edited by Eddie Harmon-Jones and Judson Mills, 103126. He believed the field lacked scientific rigor, hard data, and clarity. Festinger went to the University of Iowa to work with Lewin, and earned his PhD there in 1942. But such carefully scripted laboratory experiments involving role-playing and clever stratagem became, ironically, precisely the point of contention among scientific psychologists: some claimed their effect was to turn laboratory psychology into games whose internal rules and logic bore little to no connection to reality. Cognitive Dissonance in Psychology: Theory, Examples & Definition, Impression Management: Festinger's Study of Cognitive Dissonance, Post-Decision Dissonance & Counterattitudinal Advocacy. WebLeon Festinger (1919-1989) Leon Festinger was a 20th century psychologist who developed the theories of cognitive dissonance and social comparison. PracticalPsychology. Cognitive dissonance or cognitive dissociation is a term in social psychology that describes a feeling of unease and internal conflict that occurs when someone deals with information contradictory to one's beliefs. Very few small discoveries turn out to be important over the years; things that would have sent me jumping and shouting in my youth now left me calm and judgmental. And even worse we do not seem to have been working on many of the important problems (Festinger, 1983, p. ix). Leon Festinger. In his Psychologists on Psychology. Subjects were asked afterward whether they really did find the tasks enjoyable. Alex Festinger worked as an embroidery manufacturer. Half the group was offered a $1 bill; the rest were offered a $20 bill. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. These include the magnitude of dissonance and the modification of cognitive elements. A Personal Memory of Stanley Schachter. Leon Festinger Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. He then moved to the University of Rochester to work as a senior statistician for the National Research Councils Committee on the Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots during World War II. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) played such a major role in the emergence of the new scientific psychology as a discipline se, Leo, Leonardo (actually, Lionardo Ortensio Salvatore de), https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/festinger-leon, https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/festinger-leon, https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/festinger-leon. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. His contributions to SAGE Publications's. The cult members (who had previously avoided publicity) immediately began a vigorous campaign to attract new recruits and media attention by describing how they had saved the world. (2017). Social comparison theory also recognizes a distinctive feature of abilities. He was survived by his wife Trudy and four children. The Leon Festinger Theory of Cognitive Dissonance was created in the 1950s and conceptualized the dissonance, or a sense of unease, that a person feels BIBLIOGRAPHY The premise of their study was to better understand what happens to someone's personal beliefs when they are forced to comply with something contrary to their beliefs. Festinger, L. (1942a). psychology, psychology of personality, humanistic psychology. Time after time, Festinger brackets together his love of science and fascination of games, especially chess. An analysis of Leon Festingers a theory of cognitive dissonance. Retinal image smear as a source of information about magnitude of eye-movement. A statistical test for means of samples from skew populations. Leon Festinger. Let's talk about his famous cognitive dissonance experiment. [sic] seemed to us all to be momentous, ground breaking, the new beginning of something important. . Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards: 1959. American Psychologist 14, no. '': What was the 1st study's method? Leon Festinger (Psychologist Biography) | Practical Psychology WebThe Cognitive Dissonance Experiment is based on the theory of cognitive dissonance proposed by Leon Festinger in the year 1957: People hold many different cognitions about their world, e.g. Such changes, however, may also lead to rationalization or confirmation bias. Cognitive dissonance involves how the mind tries to make inconsistent information consistent. Anne has experience in science research and creative writing. WebLeon Festinger was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 8, 1919. Festinger, L. (1951). In 1945 Festinger moved again to become an assistant professor in Lewins newly founded Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His father and mother were Jewish-Russian immigrants named Alex Festinger and Sara Solomon Festinger. Monitor on Psychology, 33(7). Second, once we become aware of this inconsistency, it will cause dissonance and, depending on how uncomfortable we are, we'll work to resolve this dissonance. "Festinger, Leon A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. ALLPORT, GORDON WILLARD Leon and Mary divorced years later. Festinger, L., & Holtzman, J. D. (1978). The theory fails to address individual differences in peoples tolerance for cognitive dissonance. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you WebIn the 1950s, Leon Festinger was scratching his head over a group of people who called themselves The Seekers. a principle he perhaps most famously practiced when personally infiltrating a doomsday cult. Finally, we could change how you remember the situation that caused dissonance. In some experiments, accomplices posed as subjects and played scripted roles as group members with deviating or consensual opinions. Festinger himself conducted two experiments in prestige and suggestibility for his honors thesis, looking at subjects suggestibility as a function of their tendency toward stabilizing decision estimates (1939). It was during his time at MIT that Festinger eventually began to investigate and embrace social psychology. Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959 With Festingers theories and the research that they generated, "the monolithic grip that reinforcement theory had held on social psychology was effectively and permanently broken. Hoffman, P. J., Festinger, L., & Lawrence, D. H. (1954). Effort Justification Theory & Examples | What is System Justification Theory? Festinger graduated with a B.A. There was thus a kind of feedback loop created between the real world and the laboratory, each serving to refine theory and research, as opposed to one site serving as the testing ground for application in the other. The couple had three childrenCatherine, Richard, and Kurt. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Festinger infiltrated the Seekers with the goal of studying their cognitive reactions and coping mechanisms when their beliefs failed, a thought-process which Festinger 1976. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957. The debates on cognitive dissonance are instructive on Festingers contributions on several counts, and on developments in postWorld War II psychology, especially social psychology. Leon Festinger. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. As Festinger himself recalls, "the years at M.I.T. Although precedents for this ambitious research program existed in earlier work by Lewin and the Turkish-born social psychologist Muzafer Sherif, Festinger magnified the experimenters role as playwright and stage director. New York: Dryden Press, 1953. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Is there curvature adaptation not attributable to purely intravisual phenomena. Development of differential appetite in the rat. Cognitive Dissonance: Five Years Later. Psychological Bulletin 61, no. Another way would be to change our action. Cognitive Dissonance . [1] At its heart, cognitive dissonance theory is rather simple. "Deustch, 1999, p. 11 He "became a symbol of the tough-minded, theory-oriented, pure experimental scientist," while Ron Lippitt, a fellow faculty member at Lewins Research Center for Group Dynamics with whom Festinger often clashed, "became a symbol of the fuzzy-minded, do-gooder, practitioner of applied social psychology. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Maslow, Abraham "Aronson, 1991, p. 215,
Pressures toward uniformity of performance in groups. He later concluded that the rumors helped to justify the intense fear residents of these neighboring villages felt after the earthquake. Information could be written, verbal, opinions, behavior, actions, feelings, objects, or anything else received from the external environment. WebSince this cant be done with facts, its done with people. Create your account, 13 chapters | The Oak Park study began while Festinger was professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in 1951, and was published shortly after he went to Stanford University in 1955. You could just decide eating meat is okay. The theory of cognitive dissonance is a psychological principle that gets at these questions. When Lewin died unexpectedly in 1947, Festinger became director of the center and focused his attention fully on social psychology. Evans, Richard I. "Festinger, Leon However, the date of retrieval is often important. However, dissonance reduction does not always happen. Four years later, he expressed disappointment at what the field of psychology and he himself had accomplished. However, those who were only paid $1 to lie had to justify this some other way, in order to reduce the dissonance of both lying and receiving little reward. As Festinger explained, the group attempted to decrease the dissonance they felt as a result of the failed prediction by adding this new belief to explain away the inconsistency. screen.colorDepth:screen.pixelDepth))+';u'+escape(document.URL)+ Within two years of its publication, research studies on cognitive dissonance began to fill journals of experimental social psychology, and after a decade, reached three hundred separate, published, theoretical, critical and/or research publications (Margolis, 1969, p. 923). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Encyclopedia.com. The reason was simple: where an incentive was involved, people felt less conflict. Physiological PsychologyClifford T. Morgan There was little or no dissonance among the students who had been paid the $20, since, after all, they were well rewarded for their participation. Festinger, L. (1964). Cognitive dissonance. From 1963 to 1979 he studied human visual perception, making unique contributions to the research literature. Cohen, David. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Hovland, Carl I. His father, an embroidery manufacturer, had "left Russia a radical and atheist and remained faithful to these views throughout his life." (1951). This seems like the easiest approach but people don't tend to change their beliefs that often or that easily. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Festinger, The National Academies Press - Biographical Memoirs - Leon Festinger, MLibrary Digital Collections - Bentley Historical Library - Leon Festinger papers: 1939-1988, GoodTherapy - Biography of Leon Festinger. The groups prophetess, Dorothy Martin (alias Mrs. Keech), foretold of the world ending on 21 December 1954. Cartwright, D., & Festinger, L. (1943). Fester came up the idea of cognitive dissonance when studying cult members who believed a flood was going to destroy the world. The methodology of studying rumor transmission. This article showed how pressures toward uniformity of opinion in small, informal groups could lead to attitude change within the group. We may think fast food is bad for our health, but cant resist stopping at Mcdonalds on our way home from work. screen.colorDepth:screen.pixelDepth))+';u'+escape(document.URL)+ Let's say you believe animals and people are equal and should be treated with the same respect. Festinger developed the theory after studying events surrounding a deadly earthquake that occurred in India nearly two decades before. Festinger, L. (1943a). Festinger, L. (1950). Interestingly, the students who had been paid one dollar stated that they actually did find the tasks enjoyable. As dissonance theory gained scientific acceptance, the term cognitive dissonance came to be used by columnists and other commentators to describe the psychological discomfort that follows the arrival of unwanted or unexpected information or events. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Cognitions are simply bits of knowledge. 4 (2005): 12131214. "Festinger, 1980, p. 237 It was also at MIT that Festinger began his foray into social communication and pressures in groups that marked a turning point in his own research. For example, in one study, college students who often engage in risky sexual behaviors were asked to prepare and give a speech on the importance of safe sex. In 1945 Festinger joined Lewin in the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Introduction. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. He is best known for his work A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), which inspired a great deal of creative research and caused the term cognitive He was survived by his wife Trudy, his three children, his stepdaughter Debra, and three grandchildren. Such attraction occurs because some goals can be pursued successfully only with the cooperation of others or because groups provide validation about social reality, which is necessary because some opinions and beliefs cannot be tested directly or objectively (e.g., Should abortion be legal?; Who is the greatest baseball player of all time?). Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/festinger-leon. . This became known as the principle of propinquity a fancy way of saying that the closer we are to someone physically, the more likely we are to be attracted to them. Achieving similarity with others (i.e., fitting in) makes us more confident about our own opinions and abilities. She has also worked as an ocean and Earth science educator. Movement between studies in situ and the laboratory became a defining signature of Festingers early and most well-known social psychological research. Maybe you had a chicken sandwich, but you decide that eating chicken is okay, it's just cows you need to avoid. Sometimes there is no way to come to terms with conflicting information. Tendencies toward group comparability in competitive bargaining. Whereas the experimental laboratory research into cognitive dissonance was also met with forceful critical analysis of its methodological shortcomings (Chapanis & Chapanis, 1964), the original real-world study was, in contrast, quite remarked upon as a far more illuminating and provocative account of it than mere natural history description would be likely to have given us (Smith, 1957, p. 90). He published his paper on social comparison theory in 1954. EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE POWER OF DISSONANCE. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. The influence process in the presence of extreme deviates. The theory of cognitive dissonance has been used to increase health-promoting and other desirable behaviors. Festinger also did work on statistics, and, in his own words, even strayed to doing a study using laboratory rats (Festinger, 1980, p. 237). So how did Festinger test this out? These types of quizzes help people to determine how they measure up to others or to what the editor says is desirable. The results of their experiment demonstrated that inadequate external justification can lead to On the basis of these messages, she predicted that a global flood would destroy the world on December 21, 1954. Foreword. Social psychology describes cognitive dissonance as the feeling of unease, or dissonance, that happens when someone deals with contradictory information. In addition, some critics argue that people often engage in comparisons with individuals who differ from them in important ways and that such comparisons also supply valuable self-knowledge. Festinger, L., Torrey, J., & Willerman, B. 78). '" alt="" title="LiveInternet: number of pageviews and visitors'+ Encyclopedia.com. Festinger hypothesized that cognitive dissonance is an aversive state and that an individual would be motivated to reduce dissonance. Leon Festinger was a prominent American social psychologist. In such situations, the conflict between what we think and what we do results in mental discomfort. to form friendships with those living upstairs. Festinger earned his masters degree in child behavior in 1940 and his PhD in child behavior in 1942. Dissonance could be reduced by changing attitudes, altering perceptions and evaluations, or changing ones own behavior. Festinger, L. (1959a). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Leon Festinger was a renowned American psychologist, researcher, and author. WebIn 1957 Leon Festinger developed a theory that refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors which produces a feeling of discomfort which in turn makes the person alternate one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to rid the discomfort. Critics attacked the structure of the theory as being too broad and not clearly defining the conditions under which dissonance would occur, as well as the complex experimental protocols employed by dissonance theory researchers. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. These theories Festinger's research resulted in a number of interesting findings. (2010). There are three landmark publications, each of which inspired research by many investigators. Asch, S. Cacophonophobia. Contemporary Psychology: A Journal of Reviews, 3, no. Interaction of perceptually monitored and unmonitored efferent commands for smooth pursuit eye movements. A. Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Maslow was a prominent personality theorist and one of, Allport, Gordon Willard These findings led Festinger and his assistants to develop experimental approaches that many people consider to be the birth of systematic experimental social psychology.. Asch's Conformity Experiment | What Was Asch's Line Study? Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith's experiment was a cognitive dissonance experiment about forced compliance. . Festingers social psychological research in this groundbreaking venture began with his work with Back and Schachter on a study of graduate student housing (the Westgate housing study).
