Mean Girls or Social Norms?

Maddie Watts

Psychology 103

Dr. Wilson

22 November 2016

Mean Girls or Social Norms?

        Mean girls, a 2004 film, is still a hit among teenagers and even adults.  It’s full of relatable drama, cliques, memorable quotes, and a lot of comedic moments.  While watching this amusing movie, most will not see the social psychology within the story line such as conformity, normative social influence, deindividuation, and creating social norms.  Mean Girls, in short, is about a junior in high school named Cady.  Being homeschooled in Africa her entire life, moving to North Shore High forces her to learn new things about her peers and herself.  Cady meets Damien and Janice, who convince her to spy on a popular group, “The Plastics”.  Along the way many events begin to unravel to develop the story.  Although this movie is very consuming and amusing, it’s effective in showing many different examples of social psychology in real life and relatable examples.

        First, conformity is present within the movie Mean Girls.  Per simplypsychology.org, conformity is “a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior to fit in with a group.” (McLeod)  For Janice’s plan to sabotage “The Plastics” to be successful, Cady needs to gather information on the popular group first hand, in turn must play the part of truly being a plastic.  Over time Cady spends a lot of time with Regina, Gretchen, and Karen (the plastics), and to blend in she begins to conform to the group.  She begins to act, talk, dress, and present herself like a plastic.

        Another social psychology idea present in Mean Girls is normative social influence.  The American Psychology Association describes normative influence as conformity based on one’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations and gain acceptance. (American psychology association )  This can be seen through the high school girls desire to be a part of the popular group, “The Plastics”.  In the movie, most of the girls attending North Shore High look up The Plastics and aspire to be as popular and pretty as them.  This relates directly to wanting to dress and act like them so maybe they will gain acceptance from the popular clique.

        Next, the movie Mean Girls is an excellent representation of deindividuation.  According to our text, deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situation that foster arousal and anonymity.  When Cady first moves to North Shore High she is looking for real friends, to further her education, and is very family oriented.  When Janice, her first friend at her new school, meets Cady Janice tells her terrible things about Regina George, the leader of the most popular clique in school.  When Cady agrees to spy on them she is still herself, but the more time she spends The Plastics the more she becomes one.  Cady begins to fight with her parents, betray Janice, and let her grades slip all to please her fake friends.  She loses her individuality by conforming to the group the more time she spends with them.