Elliot Aronson - Personal Life

Personal Life

Elliot is married to Vera Aronson, whom he met while they were both undergraduate research assistants under Abraham Maslow. Together they have had four children; Hal, Neal, Julie and Joshua, who is himself a social psychologist. In 2000, Aronson was diagnosed with macular degeneration and, by 2003, had lost all of his central vision. To cope with his blindness, Aronson decided to work with a guide dog, and applied at Guide Dogs for the Blind in 2010. Later, beginning in January and extending through February 2011, he was trained at Guide Dogs for the Blind in a three week training session, and received a guide dog, Desilu, nicknamed "Desi." He graduated from the program on February 12, 2011. He said jokingly "They worked us 14 hours a day, until we were almost as smart as our dogs."