Leon Festinger
# Leon Festinger

Leon Festinger (Nueva York, 8 de mayo de 1919-Nueva York, 11 de febrero de 1989) fue un psicólogo social estadounidense.

## Biografía

Fue autor de A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Teoría de la disonancia cognitiva, 1957), obra en la que expone su teoría de la disonancia cognitiva, que revolucionó el campo de la psicología social, y que ha tenido múltiples aplicaciones en áreas tales como la motivación, la dinámica de grupos, el estudio del cambio de actitudes y la toma de decisiones. En su teoría, señala que en la mente de los sujetos se puede distinguir una serie de conocimientos o elementos (cogniciones) «... es decir todo lo que una persona sabe acerca de sí misma, de su conducta y de sus circunstancias» y que algunos de estos conocimientos pueden ser contradictorios, no solamente desde el punto de vista lógico, sino también desde el psicológico, entre sí, p. ej., la idea de que el código de la circulación ha de ser respetado puede estar en contradicción con el conocimiento de que en este momento me estoy saltando un semáforo rojo.

Esta contradicción es lo que el autor denomina disonancia cognitiva. Cuando hay disonancia cognitiva, el sujeto se ve motivado a reducirla.

Para ello ha de cambiar su conducta, si ello es posible, y si no lo es, lo cual ocurre en muchos casos (por ejemplo al evaluar un hecho ya acontecido, por la incapacidad de actuar sobre el pasado), entonces tratará de cambiar sus cogniciones o la valoración de las mismas.

Hemos de entrar en un conflicto con respecto a nuestra toma de decisión, pero para que ésta sea disonante necesita ser forzosamente relevante para nosotros.

Es decir, las personas seleccionamos aquellas percepciones que confirman nuestros pensamientos independientemente de si son hechos reales o no con tal de reducir nuestra disonancia cognitiva.

## Obra

* Allyn, J., & Festinger, L. (1961). Effectiveness of Unanticipated Persuasive Communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62(1), 35–40.
* Back, K., Festinger, L., Hymovitch, B., Kelley, H., Schachter, S., & Thibaut, J. (1950). The methodology of studying rumor transmission. Human Relations, 3(3), 307–312.
* Brehm, J., & Festinger, L. (1957). Pressures toward uniformity of performance in groups. Human Relations, 10(1), 85–91.
* Cartwright, D., & Festinger, L. (1943). A quantitative theory of decision. Psychological Review, 50, 595–621.
* Coren, S., & Festinger, L. (1967). Alternative view of the "Gibson normalization effect". Perception & Psychophysics, 2(12), 621–626.
* Festinger, L. (1942a). A theoretical interpretation of shifts in level of aspiration. Psychological Review, 49, 235–250.
* Festinger, L. (1942b). Wish, expectation, and group standards as factors influencing level of aspiration. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 37, 184–200.
* Festinger, L. (1943a). Development of differential appetite in the rat. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(3), 226–234.
* Festinger, L. (1943b). An exact test of significance for means of samples drawn from populations with an exponential frequency distribution. Psychometrika, 8, 153–160.
* Festinger, L. (1943c). A statistical test for means of samples from skew populations. Psychometrika, 8, 205–210.
* Festinger, L. (1943d). Studies in decision: I. Decision-time, relative frequency of judgment and subjective confidence as related to physical stimulus difference. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(4), 291–306.
* Festinger, L. (1943e). Studies in decision: II. An empirical test of a quantitative theory of decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(5), 411–423.
* Festinger, L. (1946). The significance of difference between means without reference to the frequency distribution function. Psychometrika, 11(2), 97–105.
* Festinger, L. (1947a). The role of group belongingness in a voting situation. Human Relations, 1(2), 154–180.
* Festinger, L. (1947b). The treatment of qualitative data by scale analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 44(2), 149–161.
* Festinger, L. (1949). The analysis of sociograms using matrix algebra. Human Relations, 2(2), 153–158.
* Festinger, L. (1950). Informal social communication. Psychological Review, 57(5), 271–282.
* Festinger, L. (1950b). Psychological Statistics. Psychometrika, 15(2), 209–213.
* Festinger, L. (1951). Architecture and group membership. Journal of Social Issues, 7(1–2), 152–163.
* Festinger, L. (1952). Some consequences of de-individuation in a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47(2), 382–389.
* Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
* Festinger, L. (1955a). Handbook of social psychology, vol 1, Theory and method, vol 2, Special fields and applications. Journal of Applied Psychology, 39(5), 384–385.
* Festinger, L. (1955b). Social psychology and group processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 6, 187–216.
* Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
* Festinger, L. (1959a). Sampling and related problems in research methodology. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 64(2), 358–369.
* Festinger, L. (1959b). Some attitudinal consequences of forced decisions. Acta Psychologica, 15, 389–390.
* Festinger, L. (1961). The psychological effects of insufficient rewards. American Psychologist, 16(1), 1–11.
* Festinger, L. (1962). Cognitive dissonance. Scientific American, 207(4), 93–107.
* Festinger, L. (1964). Behavioral support for opinion change. Public Opinion Quarterly, 28(3), 404–417.
* Festinger, L. (Ed.). (1980). Retrospections on Social Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Festinger, L. (1983). The Human Legacy. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Festinger, L. (1981). Human nature and human competence. Social Research, 48(2), 306–321.
* Festinger, L., & Canon, L. K. (1965). Information about spatial location based on knowledge about efference. Psychological Review, 72(5), 373–384.
* Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203–210.
* Festinger, L., Cartwright, D., Barber, K., Fleischl, J., Gottsdanker, J., Keysen, A., & Leavitt, G. (1948). A study of rumor transition: Its origin and spread. Human Relations, 1(4), 464–486.
* Festinger, L., Gerard, H., Hymovitch, B., Kelley, H. H., & Raven, B. (1952). The influence process in the presence of extreme deviates. Human Relations, 5(4), 327–346.
* Festinger, L., & Holtzman, J. D. (1978). Retinal image smear as a source of information about magnitude of eye-movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance, 4(4), 573–585.
* Festinger, L., & Hutte, H. A. (1954). An experimental investigation of the effect of unstable interpersonal relations in a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(4), 513–522.
* Festinger, L., & Katz, D. (Eds.). (1953). Research methods in the behavioral sciences. New York, NY: Dryden.
* Festinger, L., & Maccoby, N. (1964). On resistance to persuasive communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 68(4), 359–366.
* Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956). When Prophecy Fails. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
* Festinger, L., Schachter, S., & Back, K. (1950). Social Pressures in Informal Groups: A Study of Human Factors in Housing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
* Festinger, L., Sedgwick, H. A., & Holtzman, J. D. (1976). Visual-perception during smooth pursuit eye-movements. Vision Research, 16(12), 1377–1386.
* Festinger, L., & Thibaut, J. (1951). Interpersonal communication in small groups. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 46(1), 92–99.
* Festinger, L., Torrey, J., & Willerman, B. (1954). Self-evaluation as a function of attraction to the group. Human Relations, 7(2), 161–174.
* Hertzman, M., & Festinger, L. (1940). Shifts in explicit goals in a level of aspiration experiment. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 27(4), 439–452.
* Hochberg, J., & Festinger, L. (1979). Is there curvature adaptation not attributable to purely intravisual phenomena. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2(1), 71–71.
* Hoffman, P. J., Festinger, L., & Lawrence, D. H. (1954). Tendencies toward group comparability in competitive bargaining. Human Relations, 7(2), 141–159.
* Holtzman, J. D., Sedgwick, H. A., & Festinger, L. (1978). Interaction of perceptually monitored and unmonitored efferent commands for smooth pursuit eye movements. Vision Research, 18(11), 1545–1555.
* Komoda, M. K., Festinger, L., & Sherry, J. (1977). The accuracy of two-dimensional saccades in the absence of continuing retinal stimulation. Vision Research, 17(10), 1231–1232.
* Miller, J., & Festinger, L. (1977). Impact of oculomotor retraining on visual-perception of curvature. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance, 3(2), 187–200.
* Schachter, S., Festinger, L., Willerman, B., & Hyman, R. (1961). Emotional disruption and industrial productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 45(4), 201–213.
