In this video, Elliot Aronson discusses his life and professional endeavors. Aronson is a social psychologist, professor emeritus at University of California at Santa Cruz. Aronson describes growing up in a Jewish family in an anti-Semitic neighborhood. He recalled being confused as a child as to why these other children disliked him without knowing him. He indicated that these childhood experiences influenced his personal and professional efforts in social psychology. Aronson notes that he has been influenced and inspired by Maslow and Festinger “doing good science and doing good.”
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In 1961–1962 Aronson studied attractiveness. His research was inspired by John F. Kennedy. He found that perfection is not as attractive as imperfection and that approachability is the most attractive quality.
In 1971, Aronson was teaching at the University of Texas in Austin in the midst of school desegregation. There were many fights and physical altercations disrupting school and learning. The superintendent of schools at the time asked for his assistance. Aronson conducted an experiment in which he changed the nature of the classroom from a competitive environment to a cooperative environment. He termed this new type of classroom a “jigsaw classroom.” Children in these classrooms had to work together in order to learn the material. Students were separated into groups of five children, ranging in gender and ethnicity. After six weeks in the jigsaw cooperative classroom, children saw an improvement in overall social cohesiveness, decline in physical altercations, and improved grades for minority and nonminority students. At the time of the video, Aronson is 83 years of age and suffering from macular degeneration but continues to engage in professional work.