BornFilho todos self-educatedimigrantes Russian-Jewishrusso immigrantsjudeus Alex Festinger (an embroidery manufacturer) ande Sara Solomon Festinger inem [[Brooklyn, New York]], Leon Festinger attendedestudou na Boys' High School ande receivedrecebeu ao bachelor'stítulo inde sciencebacharel atem Ciencias na [[City College of New York]] inem 1939. HeEle receivedrecebeu aseu Master's em in psychology frompsicologia thena [[University of Iowa]] inem 1942 afterapós studyingestudar undercom prominento proeminente psicologo social psychologist [[Kurt Lewin]], whoo wasqual tryingestava totentando createcriar a "fieldteoria theoryde campo" ofda psychologypsichologia (byem analogyanalogia toa physicsfísica) topara respondresponder totao themodelo mechanistic models of thedos behaviorists.<ref name="anb">Franz Samelson, "[http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-00887.html Festinger, Leon]", ''American National Biography Online'', FebruaryFevereiro 2000.</ref>
TheNo samemesmo yearano, heele marriedcasou pianistcom a pianista [[Mary Oliver Ballou]] withcom whomquem heele hadteve threetres childrenfilhos: (Catherine, Richard ande Kurt<ref>Stanley Schachter, "[http://books.nap.edu/books/0309049784/html/98.html Leon Festinger]", ''Biographical Memoirs'', 64, 99-111 (National Academy of Sciences, 1994).</ref>) beforeantes do divorcingdivórcio.<ref name="anb" />
Lewin createdcriou ao Research Center for Group Dynamics atno MIT inem 1945 and FestingereFestinger followed, becoming an assistant professor. Lewin passed away in 1947 and Festinger left to become an associate professor at the University of Michigan, where he was program director for the Group Dynamics center.<ref name="anb" />
InEm 1951 heele becametornou-se aprovessor fullem professortempo ofintegral psychologyde atpsicologia thena University of Minnesota. His 1953 book ''Research Methods in the [[Behavioral Sciences]]'' (with [[Daniel Katz]]) stressed the need for well-controlled variables in laboratory experiments, even if this meant misinforming the participants.<ref name="anb" />
In 1955 he moved to Stanford University. Finally, in 1968 he became Staudinger Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York.<ref name="anb" />
