Festinger, Leon (1919–1989)

Background

Festinger graduated as a psychology major from the City College of New York in 1939 with a senior honors thesis on factors affecting how people set goals. Despite a passion for all kinds of games (initially chess, later Go, pinball, and crib-bage), he was persuaded to study at the University of Iowa with Kurt Lewin, who was known for his studies of motivation. However, Lewin was increasingly interested in group behavior. Conducting research on complex social processes in the laboratory to test theories and solve applied problems was Lewin's mission. Festinger remained interested in people's level of aspiration and decision making, but he was drawn to Lewin's striving for conceptual understanding and intellectual enthusiasm. Lewin conducted research meetings very informally so that everyone had a voice, and debate was encouraged. In these meetings, Festinger was known for his aversion to sloppy thinking and a fondness for counterintuitive findings, attitudes he held throughout his career.

Festinger's early research concerned the effects of motivation and group standards on goal setting, decision making, taste preferences in the rat, and statistics. He obtained his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1942, remained at Iowa as a research associate for 2 years, and then moved to the University of Rochester to work for the Committee on the Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots.

Social Pressures in Informal Groups

In 1945, Lewin moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to found the Research Center for Group Dynamics, and Festinger joined him as an assistant professor of social psychology (although neither he nor Lewin had ever taken a course in social psychology). The center was committed to the application of psychological concepts and methods to solve social problems, and it attracted many talented students. At the time, Festinger's credentials as a social psychologist might have seemed questionable; he later said that he became a social psychologist by fiat.

His first project was based on attitude surveys of residents in married student housing. This study yielded a textbook phenomenon—friendships were more likely the closer the people were physically in proximity (even by just a few yards). Similarity in attitudes was also critical—attitudes of residents tended to converge, but residents who held deviant attitudes were social isolates.

Festinger thought group members acquired similar beliefs and opinions because of social pressures toward uniformity, but this idea remained to be tested experimentally. In his informal communication theory, he proposed that people are susceptible to social pressure when they are attracted to a group. This attraction occurs because some goals [Page 285]can be pursued successfully only with the cooperation of others or because groups provide validation about social reality, which is necessary since 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?”).

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