Leon Festinger: Cognitive Dissonance And Social Comparison Theory
Emily Nichols
Psych 220, Dr. Bikmen
4/28/2016
Lives in Social Psychology: Leon Festinger Leon Festinger was an extremely influential social psychologist, known for his studies about cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. Festinger was born May 8th, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Sara and Alex Festinger. His father was an embroidery manufacturer. Festinger attended Boys High School, a public school in Brooklyn. After graduating, he moved on to City College of New York for undergraduate. At City College Festinger worked with Max Hertzman on a study called “Shifts in explicit goals in a level of aspiration experiment”, that was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1940 (Zajonc, 1990). During his time at …show more content…
Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort that occurs when a person’s behavior doesn’t match their beliefs or attitudes. Previous research had shown that in order to reduce cognitive dissonance, people would change their opinion. To further test this theory, Festinger and Carlsmith used 71 male students from Stanford University. The students were required to spend a certain amount of time as subjects in experiments at the university, so they thought they were signing up for an experiment about measuring performance. The participants were told that after they complete the experiment, they would be interviewed about the experience. When they began the experiment, the students were asked to complete two tasks, each lasting 30 minutes. Both tasks involved tedious, boring, and repetitive actions such as turning pegs. While each participant completed the tasks, the experimenter pretended to take notes, making them think that the tasks were the purpose of the experiment (Festinger& Carlsmith, …show more content…
In his paper “ A Theory of Social Comparison Processes”, Festinger discussed nine different hypotheses regarding social comparison. The general theme of these hypotheses is that humans seek a way to evaluate their opinions and abilities, and they often do this through social comparison. To explain this, Festinger used the example of Sherif’s study of the autokinetic effect. In that study, participants changed their answers based on what the other participants said, because they were unsure about their own answers and had no way of confirming them. Next, Festinger examined the idea that people are more likely to compare themselves to those similar to them. He used the example of a person learning to play chess, explaining that they wouldn’t compare their chess abilities to a master of chess, but instead another beginner. Festinger argued that in a situation where there is a range of possible people to compare yourself to, you tend to choose the person most similar to you (Festinger,
Psych 220, Dr. Bikmen
4/28/2016
Lives in Social Psychology: Leon Festinger Leon Festinger was an extremely influential social psychologist, known for his studies about cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. Festinger was born May 8th, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Sara and Alex Festinger. His father was an embroidery manufacturer. Festinger attended Boys High School, a public school in Brooklyn. After graduating, he moved on to City College of New York for undergraduate. At City College Festinger worked with Max Hertzman on a study called “Shifts in explicit goals in a level of aspiration experiment”, that was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1940 (Zajonc, 1990). During his time at …show more content…
Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort that occurs when a person’s behavior doesn’t match their beliefs or attitudes. Previous research had shown that in order to reduce cognitive dissonance, people would change their opinion. To further test this theory, Festinger and Carlsmith used 71 male students from Stanford University. The students were required to spend a certain amount of time as subjects in experiments at the university, so they thought they were signing up for an experiment about measuring performance. The participants were told that after they complete the experiment, they would be interviewed about the experience. When they began the experiment, the students were asked to complete two tasks, each lasting 30 minutes. Both tasks involved tedious, boring, and repetitive actions such as turning pegs. While each participant completed the tasks, the experimenter pretended to take notes, making them think that the tasks were the purpose of the experiment (Festinger& Carlsmith, …show more content…
In his paper “ A Theory of Social Comparison Processes”, Festinger discussed nine different hypotheses regarding social comparison. The general theme of these hypotheses is that humans seek a way to evaluate their opinions and abilities, and they often do this through social comparison. To explain this, Festinger used the example of Sherif’s study of the autokinetic effect. In that study, participants changed their answers based on what the other participants said, because they were unsure about their own answers and had no way of confirming them. Next, Festinger examined the idea that people are more likely to compare themselves to those similar to them. He used the example of a person learning to play chess, explaining that they wouldn’t compare their chess abilities to a master of chess, but instead another beginner. Festinger argued that in a situation where there is a range of possible people to compare yourself to, you tend to choose the person most similar to you (Festinger,