Elliot Aronson

Elliot Aronson attended Brandeis University as an undergraduate, where he worked with Abraham Maslow. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford University under the guidance of Leon Festinger. He has held academic positions at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas, and is currently a professor of psychology at University of California at Santa Cruz. As a social psychologist, he has pursued a wide range of research interests in areas that include social influence and attitude change, cognitive dissonance, research methodology, and interpersonal attraction.

Elliot Aronson received the American Psychological Association’s 1998-99 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, considered the "Nobel Prize of psychology." One of his major contributions was a refinement of the theory of cognitive dissonance, which first revealed how people strive to alter their attitudes to conform to their actions. The APA award recognized Aronson’s contributions to basic research, the brilliance of his experimental style, and his courage in investigating difficult phenomena. Aronson’s revolutionary work on reducing classroom prejudice is known as "The Jigsaw classroom."

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