 A senior doctoral student, Leon Festinger, took over as Schachter's supervisor, and the pair became very close lifelong friends.When Festinger moved to the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research in 1948, Schachter followed.This was where Schachter gained his Ph.D. in 1949, under supervisor Festinger, writing his dissertation on how individuals with differing opinions who were working in small groups were treated by the members of the group whose opinion matched with the majority.