Introduction
Mean Girls follows the life of Cady Heron, a 15-year-old girl who is experiencing high school for the first time in her life. After meeting Janis and Damian, Cady is warned about the “Plastics,” and soon finds herself invited into the exclusive group led by Regina George. Damian, Janis and Cady come up with a plan for Cady to manipulate the Plastics and take them down, but the more time Cady spends with them, the more “plastic” she becomes.
Looking at this film from a social psychology perspective, one can clearly identify many theories and principles within the fictional “girl world.” This paper aims to demonstrate a few of the many social psychology principles that are evident in the film, including cognitive dissonance, diffusion of responsibility, and gender roles.
Concept One – Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance occurs when one’s actions contradict their attitude (DeLamater, J. D., Myers, D. J., & Collett, J. L., 2015, p. 255.) There are two types of cognitive dissonance – dissonance after an act, called post-decisional dissonance and counter-attitudinal behavior (Delamater et al., 2015, p. 255-256.) When an individual has two contradicting cognitions, one changes something in order to remove the uncomfortable state of dissonance. The individual can either change the action or behaviour, or change the importance of the attitude, called rationalization. In most cases, rationalization is easier than changing a cognition or action.
In the film Mean Girls, Cady Heron experiences cognitive dissonance. When she begins school at “North Shore High,” Cady is naïve, innocent and likes math – she’s even smart enough to be in a grade twelve calculus class. She meets Janis and Damian, who tell her to avoid the “Plastics” a clique of mean, popular girls. She is later surprised when the trio invites her to eat lunch with them, and agrees, only so that she can make fun of them with Janis and Damian. However, soon, Cady begins to act like the Plastics, desiring their approval and liking. Rather than being narrowed down to a specific scene, Cady’s cognitive dissonance is witnessed throughout the film. In the beginning, Cady’s acts of sabotage towards the Plastics match up with her attitude of disliking them, therefore her behaviour is balanced with her action. The more she hangs out with them, the more she desperately longs for their attention and their praise, despite not actually liking them. Cady then experiences cognitive dissonance, where her behaviours don’t match her attitudes or cognitions. She stops planning revenge on the Plastics with Janis and Damian, and instead starts acting like the trio, dressing like them, and adopting their selfish behaviours. She blows off Janis’ art show and going to a concert with her parents to throw a party with the Plastics. Like most people experiencing cognitive dissonance, Cady tries to rationalize her actions so that she does not feel guilty about the disharmony. She tells Janis that Regina seems sweet, mostly in an attempt to convince herself that Regina isn’t as mean as she acts. Towards the end of the film, Cady resolves the uncomfortable cognitive dissonance she experiences and as a result, discovers her true self. She joins the mathletes, apologizes for her mean behaviour and changes her actions so that they match up with her cognitions. She is civil with the Plastics, gets the guy, and has great friends – Janis and Damian.
Concept Two – Diffusion of Responsibility
The next concept that can be identified in the movie Mean Girls is diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is a concept that states that a person is less likely to take responsibility for an action when there are other people, called bystanders, present (Delamater et al., 2015, 362-363.) One would think that the more people there are present to assist in a situation, or take responsibility, the more people would do so. However, this is not the case, because more often than not, the individual assumes that another person will take action or responsibility. What happens is that everyone present makes the assumption that someone else will take responsibility – so no one does. Therefore, contrary to belief or assumption, the more people involved, the more likely an individual will do nothing.
In the film Mean Girls, Regina hands in the Plastics’ Burn Book, claiming she had no idea who wrote it, and not-so-casually mentions the only three girls not included amongst the cruel notes: Cady, Karen, and Gretchen. She uses the concept of diffusion of responsibility to ensure that she would not get in trouble. The three remaining Plastics are called into the principal, Mr. Duvall’s office and are questioned about who wrote the book. None of the girls admit to writing it or blame one another, but instead, they all try to blame the book on Regina alone. With the three girls called to the office together, there was less of a chance that they would take responsibility – Regina ensured she was safe by writing about herself in the book, knowing the girls would try to diffuse all responsibility onto her. By attempting to blame a girl who was in the book, it made the three seem even more guilty. Obviously, if only one bystander witnesses an act, the responsibility is placed fully on that individual (DeLamater et al., p. 362-363.) So, when analyzing the film, one might assume that if Mr. Duvall had called each girl into the office separately, it is possible that one of them would have taken full or partial responsibility and claimed someone besides Regina wrote the Burn Book.
Concept Three – Gender Roles
The last concept that is evident in the film Mean Girls is gender roles. Gender roles are simple and can be understood as a social role that associates norms, behaviours and attitudes with a specific gender (DeLamater et al., 2015, 88.) What is considered “feminine” or “masculine” in a society is a social construct; yet is often a strong factor in determining how an individual will behave. Media has a big impact on gender roles and expectations, especially with women. Often in films, there are two sides to the attitudes of female characters – catty and mean, or motherly and warm. It is evident in the film which attitude is being portrayed, simply by the title.
One of the gender associated behaviours is that the female characters pay a lot of attention to in Mean Girls, a negative attitude about their physical appearances. In mainstream media, “ideal” femininity is portrayed as being slender, sexy and beautiful. Regina George, the head of the exclusive group of “Plastics,” strives to fit into this particular image. This is evident in her behaviour and attitudes in a few scenes in the film; particularly in the cafeteria, where Regina obsesses over what she is eating in hopes of losing three pounds. Her obsessive behavior intensifies after she is nominated for Spring Fling Queen; when she begins drinking cranberry juice and becomes fixated on squeezing into a prom dress. She worries about how her food intake will affect her figure and after being reassured about her already slender physique by her friends, she shuts all compliments down. She tries dieting and setting food restrictions, even having to ask, “is butter a carb?” to ensure that she does not eat anything that could cause weight gain. This is only one example of gender roles, specifically female behaviours and attitudes regarding physical appearance, but it is the most important to the plot. Regina George is considered the most beautiful and popular girl at North Shore, and yet she still has a negative attitude towards her appearance. Self-depreciation amongst women is a norm that society deems acceptable, and is a gender role, or gender associated behaviour, that unfortunately many women partake in.
Conclusion
It is evident that when analyzing the film Mean Girls from a social psychologist’s perspective, many concepts such as cognitive dissonance, diffusion of responsibility, and gender roles come into play. Behaviours, cognitions and responsibilities heavily rely on social influences in the environment, and this is shown in many scenes of the film.