Source: Futility Closet
In 1955, aliens from the planet Clarion contacted a Chicago housewife to warn her that the end of the world was imminent. Psychologist Leon Festinger saw this as a unique opportunity to test a new theory about human cognition. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll follow him inside a UFO religion as it approaches the apocalypse.
We’ll also try to determine when exactly LBJ became president and puzzle over some wet streets.
Intro:
There’s a hexagon of cloud at Saturn’s north pole.
You’re not as unpopular as you think you are.
Sources for our feature on Leon Festinger:
Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, and Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails, 1956.
Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, 1957.
Joel Cooper, Cognitive Dissonance: Fifty Years of a Classic Theory, 2007.
Camille Morvan with Alexander J. O’Connor, An Analysis of Leon Festinger’s A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, 2017.
Leon Festinger, “Cognitive Dissonance,” Scientific American 207:4 (October 1962), 93-106.
Stanley Schachter, “Leon Festinger,” Biographical Memoirs, Vol. 64, National Academy of Sciences, 1994.
R.B. Zajonc, “Obituary: Leon Festinger (1919–1989),” American Psychologist 45:5 (1990), 661-662.
Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Leon Festinger: Lunch With Leon,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 1:1 (2006), 88-94.
Elliot Aronson, “Leon Festinger and the Art of Audacity,” Psychological Science 2:4 (July 1, 1991), 213-221.
Serge Moscovici, “Obituary: Leon Festinger,” European Journal of Social Psychology 19:4 (July 1989), 263-269.
Dion Scott-Kakures, “Unsettling Questions: Cognitive Dissonance in Self-Deception,” Social Theory and Practice 35:1 (January 2009), 73-106.
Stephen Cox, “An Experiment in Apocalypse,” Liberty 24:11 (December 2010) 17-22.
Louisa C. Egan, Laurie R. Santos, and Paul Bloom, “The Origins of Cognitive Dissonance: Evidence From Children and Monkeys,” Psychological Science 18:11 (November 2007), 978-983.
Merton S. Krause, “An Analysis of Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory,” Philosophy of Science 39:1 (March 1972), 32-50.
Charles G. Lord, “Was Cognitive Dissonance Theory a Mistake?” Psychological Inquiry 3:4 (1992), 339-342.
Betty…
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