9 - people

  1. Harold Kelley: attribution theory, explores how individuals attribute causes to their own behavior and the behavior of others. He proposed that people make attributions based on three factors: consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

  2. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson: conducted research on the Pygmalion effect, also known as the self-fulfilling prophecy, which suggests that higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. Their study, often referred to as the "Pygmalion in the Classroom" study, showed that teachers' expectations of students' intellectual abilities could influence students' academic performance.

  3. Leon Festinger: theory of cognitive dissonance, which posits that individuals experience psychological discomfort when their beliefs or attitudes are inconsistent with their actions or other beliefs. He proposed that people are motivated to reduce this discomfort through various means, such as changing their beliefs or seeking out supportive information.

  4. James Carlsmith: Carlsmith collaborated with Festinger on the study of cognitive dissonance. Their experiment demonstrated that participants who were paid a small amount of money to complete a boring task actually rated the task as more enjoyable afterward compared to those who were paid a larger amount. This finding supported the idea that individuals experience cognitive dissonance when their actions are not aligned with their attitudes, leading them to change their attitudes to reduce discomfort.

  5. Solomon Asch: Asch is famous for his conformity experiments, particularly the line experiment, where participants were asked to match the length of a line to a set of comparison lines. His research demonstrated the power of social influence and the tendency for individuals to conform to the majority opinion, even when it contradicts their own judgment.

  6. Stanley Milgram: Milgram conducted the infamous obedience study, where participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a confederate under the guise of a learning experiment. His research highlighted the extent to which individuals are willing to obey authority figures, even when their actions conflict with their moral values.

  7. Philip Zimbardo: Zimbardo is known for the Stanford Prison Experiment, where participants were assigned roles as prisoners or guards in a simulated prison environment. The study demonstrated the power of situational factors in shaping behavior and revealed the potential for abuse of power and dehumanization in institutional settings.