Psych 101

Leon Festinger suggested in his cognitive dissonance theory that every person has an inner drive and desire to avoid dissonance

Gestalt psychology claims that the whole is not simply the same as the sum of its parts.

When the comparison lines were harder to judge because their lengths were very similar, Asch discovered that conformity increased. This demonstrates that when people are unsure about something, they are more likely to turn to other people for a confirmation. The more difficult the task is, the greater the chance of having conformity.

Heroic Imagination Project. The Project aims to inspire heroic behavior and to understand what makes some people turn towards acts of evil while others turn towards acts of heroism

There will be rumors and, most of the time, they will be true: In 1985, a study took place in a work environment and found that people talked of rumors and gossip 80 percent of the time, and that an astounding 80 percent of this information was true. Other studies have shown very similar results.

Most of the time, leaders emerge from the group slowly: Though leaders can be appointed and imposed upon, most of the time leaders emerge by first conforming to the group; and then after gaining trust, they become more confident and eventually others will follow them.

Adler set up his office in the lower class part of Vienna, and across the street from his office was an amusement park and circus. As a result, most of the clients he saw were circus performers

Milgram received a postcard with each forward and recorded the relationship between sender and receiver. Milgram discovered that within almost all instances, the chains had approximately five or six links that connected any two people

What would be the probability of two complete strangers having a mutual friend? What if there were no mutual friend? How long would that chain be for them to reach each other? Approximately a decade later, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment known as “The Small World Experiment” in an effort to answer these questions.

“six degrees of separation”? If so, you can thank Stanley Milgram for that.