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An internationally renowned social psychologist, Leon Festinger was responsible for the development of the theory of cognitive dissonance in the 1950s. He taught only briefly at the University of Michigan (1948-1951) but is considered to be one of the founders of the university's Institute for Social Research. In his later career, he researched and published in a number of other fields including visual perception, archaeology and early human history.

Born in New York City in 1919, Leon Festinger received his B.S. from City College of New York in 1939. He studied under Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in social psychology, at the University of Iowa where he received his M.A. in 1940 and Ph.D. in 1942. His early interest was in precise quantitative measurements in psychology as is reflected in his doctoral dissertation based on a mathematical model of decision-making. During World War II, Festinger worked as a senior statistician for the Committee on Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots at the University of Rochester. In 1945, he joined Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lippitt, and several other psychologists as an assistant professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the center, research was oriented toward the study of social action and real-world social problems and Festinger gradually became more interested in problems in social psychology.

When Kurt Lewin died in 1947, the young research center at M.I.T. was faced with dissolution but shortly found a new home in Ann Arbor. Many years later, Festinger explained the move to the University of Michigan when he wrote, "With the help of Rensis Likert, director of the Survey Research Center, and Donald Marquis, head of the Psychology Department, we moved the Research Center for Group Dynamics in 1948, faculty, students and all, to the University of Michigan, where we, together with the Survey Research Center, constituted a newly created Institute for Social Research. Thus, Michigan, which already had Theodore Newcomb and Daniel Katz on its faculty, became a huge institution with regard to social psychology." While at Michigan, Festinger co-edited Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences - a widely used text in psychology.

In 1951, Festinger left Michigan for the University of Minnesota and then in 1954 he moved on to Stanford University. While at Stanford, he published some of his most important works in social psychology. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance appeared in 1957. This theory holds that dissonance between two sets of ideas or values is tension provoking for an individual and that various strain-reducing techniques will be utilized by that individual to make the two sets consonant. A field study of cognitive dissonance, When Prophecy Fails, was also published while Festinger was at Stanford. This work was based upon observations of a religious group which believed that they would be rescued by space ships before the world ended in a giant flood on December 21, 1954.

In 1964, Festinger's research interests changed. As he explained in Retrospections on Social Psychology, which he edited, "I left the field of social psychology in 1964. This had nothing to do with the importance of the problems - they are very important - or with the vitality of the field - it was, and remains, vigorous. It had to do only with a conviction that had been growing in me at the time that I, personally, was in a rut and needed an injection of intellectual stimulation from new sources to remain productive." Festinger turned his attention to the study of perception and consciousness and, in particular, to visual perception. Through a careful technical analysis of eye movements, he hoped to discover how an internal readiness to receive visual information combined with the incoming visual input to produce the conscious experience of visual perception.

In 1968, Festinger left Stanford to become the Else and Hans Staudinger Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York City. At the New School, he continued his work on the measurement of visual perception and authored many journal articles on this subject during the 1970s. Around 1978, his academic interests again changed focus. He began a study of the social organization of pre-historic groups and especially the development of specialized functions within these groups. The results of this research, based largely upon archaeological sources, were published in his monograph, The Human Legacy, in 1983.

While Festinger's intellectual pursuits changed over the years, certain interests remained constant. Throughout his career, he was considered to be an especially insightful reviewer and his critical judgements were eagerly sought by book publishers, journal editors, and many organizations. He served as a consultant to governmental, military, and private institutions. He also maintained a keen interest in international scholarly cooperation. He participated in many international conferences, was a visiting professor in Japan, and an Einstein Visiting Fellow in Israel. He also kept up a wide circle of international correspondence. Among his many honors, Festinger was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association and an honorary doctorate from the University of Mannheim.