Elliot Aronson

thumb| Elliot Aronson (born January 9, 1932) is an American psychologist who has carried out experiments on the theory of cognitive dissonance, and invented the Jigsaw Classroom, a cooperative teaching technique that facilitates learning while reducing interethnic hostility and prejudice. Quotes The western mind — and perhaps the American mind in particular — has been trained to equate success with victory, to equate doing well with beating someone. The Social Animal (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co, 1972) ch. 5 (p. 153) The scientific method consists of the use of procedures designed to show not that our predictions and hypotheses are right, but that they might be wrong. Scientific reasoning is useful to anyone in any job because it makes us face the possibility, even the dire reality, that we were mistaken. It forces us to confront our self-justifications and put them on public display for others to puncture. At its core, therefore, science is a form of arrogance control. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) (US: Harcourt, 2007) ch. 4 (p. 108) — written with Carol Tavris External links Category:Psychologists from the United States Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:People from Massachusetts Category:1932 births Category:Living people