Leon Festinger was born on May 8 1919 in New York City. He had years of experience in school with multiple degrees and published research. His first degree was in psychology from The City College of New York in 1939. He met Kurt Lewin, another psychologist in September 1939 at the University of Iowa where he received his MA and PhD in the field of child behaviour. In 1945 he went to MIT and studied under Kurt Lewin at the Centre for Group Dynamics, he then realized that his true interest was in social psychology. When Kurt died he went to the University of Minnesota and the University of Stanford. He published a highly influential paper on social comparison theory, extending his prior theory regarding the evaluation of attitudes in social
