Peer Influence and Aggression in Mean Girls 1

Peer Influence and Aggression in Mean Girls

Brooke Albert-Funderburk

PSY4613 Social & Personality Development

Regarding the representation of adolescent social dynamics in the media, Mean Girls has

become something of a classic film. It portrays various dynamics of teen relationships,

particularly those between females, in a humorous and perhaps slightly exaggerated manner

while depicting certain relevant aspects of aggression and the role of peer influence. However, it

is important to evaluate the effect of films such as this that portray aggression as central to high-

status social positions on adolescent development.

Mean Girls takes a unique approach to depicting teen aggression. Cady often compares

animal world to girl world, imagining what relational aggression would be like if it were

instead replaced with physical aggression. This seems to imply that Cady was fairly unfamiliar

with relational aggression before moving to America. In Western cultures, females are socialized

more strongly against performing physical aggression (Underwood & Rosen, 2011, p. 202), but

it is unclear whether this holds true in other cultures. It seems likely that physical aggression was

more normative than relational aggression in the area in which Cady spent her childhood.

Furthermore, this method of showing relational aggression as if it were physical also serves to

emphasize those acts of aggression since relational aggression can be much more subtle and

difficult to identify than physical aggression.

Research has shown that a sense of frustration can lead to reactive relational aggression

(Dane, Marini, 2014). Janis Ian, one of Cadys first friends at her new school, is motivated by

frustration to take vengeance on Regina for humiliating Janis by calling her a lesbian and

excluding her. Seeing that the Plastics are taking an interest in Cady, Janis convinces Cady to

join the plastics in order to spy on Regina and gather information in order to sabotage her

reputation and relationships.

Though Cady initially considers Regina to be sweet and polite, as she spends more time

with the plastics she begins to realize how aggressive they truly are. The idea that relational

aggression is hidden behind a faade of niceties is supported by research; adolescents who

engage in social aggression but are also high on prosocial behaviors and self-efficacy are most

likely to be high on perceived popularity (Underwood & Rosen, 2011, p.222). Though the

Plastics act prosocially toward their peers much of the time, there is a copious amount of social

aggression that occurs without the victims immediate awareness. For example, Cady soon

discovers the Burn Book, which is a sort of scrapbook put together by the Plastics that includes

insulting rumors and gossip about various female peers.

As the film continues, Cady begins to fall for Aaron Samuels, who is an ex-boyfriend of

Regina. She naively shares this development with Regina, who agrees to put in a good word for

her. Instead, Regina kisses him at his Halloween party, reclaiming him as her boyfriend in a

demonstration of her social dominance over Cady.

Convinced that Regina is not the nice girl that she once appeared to be, Cady agrees to

assist Janis in the formulation of a plan to destroy Reginas reputation. Relational aggression can

take many forms this is one component contributing to the difficulty of studying relational

aggression. Underwood and Rosen mention making fun of or calling names, exclusion,

gossiping, and disrupting romantic relationships (2011, p.221). Cady, Janis, and Damien

incorporate all of the aforementioned forms of social aggression in order to get revenge on

Regina. Their plan includes destroying her relationship with Aaron, tricking her into eating

nutrition bars that make her gain weight in order to ruin her hot body, and turning the other

Plastics against her. In time, Cady becomes so preoccupied with carrying out their plan that she
Peer Influence and Aggression in Mean Girls 4

begins to adopt relational aggression as her own social tool. As Reginas reputation plummets,

Cady is regarded by peers and the other Plastics as the new Regina.

While the risk of performing frequent physical aggression seems to be determined

primarily by early childhood factors (Underwood & Rosen, 2011, p. 220), relational aggression

seems to be more closely influenced by peer factors (Dijkstra, Berger, & Lindenberg, 2011). In

this way, Cadys quick adoption of relational aggression is supported by recent research findings.

Studies in neuroscience have shown that normative adolescent brain development

includes significant growth of social cognitive skills; these changes orient teens toward the

social world and heightens the salience of peers. While cognitive development supports the

increasing importance of the peer context, the strength of peer influence may differ between

individuals, however. Researchers have shown that adolescents who score higher on self-

reported measures of resistance to peer influence show different neural activity patterns than

their counterparts. Subjects scoring high on resistance to peer influence display an increased

number of connections between the areas of the brain responsible for decision-making and those

that process the actions of others. It has also been shown that there may be a genetic factor that

renders individuals more or less vulnerable to peer influence (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011).

Cady seems to be fairly highly susceptible to peer influence. Janis and Damien were the

first of her peers to attempt to become friends with her, and she quickly accepts their suggestions

to skip class with her. Soon enough, she is agreeing to spy on Regina in order to get revenge for

Janis. However, as she spends more of her time with the Plastics, she unwarily begins to become

more like them. This phenomenon can be easily explained when considering the research done

by Laursen, Hafen, Kerr, and Stattin. They have shown that though adolescent friends resemble

each other at the time of friendship formation, their similarities continue to grow throughout the
Peer Influence and Aggression in Mean Girls 5

course of their friendship, and when friendships dissolve, similarities begin to lessen.

Interestingly, individuals in a friendship dyad are not equally influential. In stable or long-term

friendships, the more influential partner was also the more highly socially accepted partner

(Laursen, Hafen, Kerr, & Stattin, 2012).

The aforementioned study describes precisely what occurs in this film. Though Cady may

have been somewhat similar to either Janis or Regina when she became friends with them, she

became more similar to Janis as she spent time with her, and eventually became similar to

Regina in ways that she did not intend. When Cady decides to become friends with the Plastics,

she intends to destroy their socially dominant role that had been secured through means of

relational aggression, but ironically, she herself becomes more aggressive. In addition to using

aggression to sabotage Regina, Cady begins to use relational aggression to her own benefit. She

says, I had learned how to control everyone around me (Michaels & Fey, 2004). It is clear that

Regina held the more socially dominant role and therefore the more influential role in their

friendship and as predicted by research, Cady begins to behave more like Regina than vice-versa.

Cady throws a party in order to secure Aaron as her boyfriend and her plan backfires when he

finds out that she has been manipulating him in order to get him to talk to her. Turning to Cady,

he says, You are just like a clone of Regina (Michaels & Fey, 2004).

As Regina discovers Cadys betrayal, her frustration leads her to add a fake entry

containing her own name into the Burn Book in order to share its contents with the school and to

blame the resulting chaos on the only girls who were not in the book Cady and the other

Plastics. It is interesting to see the vast amount of physical aggression between peers when

Regina reveals the gossip contained within the Burn Book, considering that physical aggression

is more common among males than females (Underwood & Rosen, 2011, p. 209). Individuals
Peer Influence and Aggression in Mean Girls 6

who are low on effortful control and high on fearfulness are likely to perform reactive, overt acts

of aggression (Dane & Marini, 2014); this could explain the variation between the individuals

who reacted to the Burn Book with physical aggression and those who did not.

The principle soon calls an intervention for all the girls involved in the riot caused by the

Burn Book. The faculty and staff spend the remainder of the day working to increase awareness

of the girls transgressions against one another by asking the students to confess to and apologize

for any relational aggression between them. The level of social aggression and peer victimization

undertaken by Regina in order to obtain and uphold her role of social dominance becomes

obvious; nearly every female admits to having felt personally victimized by her. When publicly

confessing her plan to get revenge on Regina, the entire school applauds her. It is clear that

though Regina was in a highly visible and influential position, her peers did not necessarily like

her.

The role of peer influence on relational aggression is related to the perception of

aggression as a high-status behavior. Moreover, peers have been shown to participate in

behaviors that are normative to their desired peer group (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011).

Adolescents who desire a highly visible and socially dominant role may use relational aggression

as a tool to achieve a higher popularity status. Films such as this one reinforce the idea that

relational aggression is essential to popularity and may therefore encourage relational aggression.

However, such a message may be negated by the observation that though Regina, as a popular

girl, is highly influential, she is not well liked. This may serve to discourage adolescents from

using an excessive amount of aggression as a means to ones own ends. The film could benefit

from a stronger distinction of perceived popularity and peer acceptance in order to further

discourage aggression and perhaps even encourage prosocial behavior.

As the film concludes, Cady takes the blame for the Burn Book and joins the Mathletes

as part of her punishment. During a Mathlete competition, she is overcome with the realization

that making fun of her opponents appearance would not help her solve the math problem,

calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier, calling someone stupid doesn't make

you any smarter, and ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you

can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you (Michaels & Fey, 2004). This sends a

positive message to adolescent viewers that, not only does social aggression harm the victim, but

also it fails to prove beneficial for anyone involved. Eventually, Cady apologizes to her friends

and victims and truly becomes accepted by her peers; these events send the message that

prosocial behaviors are far more rewarding than aggression. Furthermore, the fact that Regina

was hit by a bus appears to be an act of justice; she was able to feel an amount of physical pain

perhaps equivalent to that experienced by her victims.

Overall, Mean Girls demonstrates a worst-case scenario regarding what could happen

when relational aggression among female adolescents becomes out of control. The films

depiction of relational aggression, its uses, effects, and peer influences are accurate and

supported by recent research. Though this film reinforces the idea that social aggression is

central to popularity, it portrays many positive messages to adolescents regarding the

widespread, harmful effects of relational aggression, and offers prosocial alternatives to gain the

acceptance of ones peers.

References

Brechwald, W. A., & Prinstein, M. J. (2011). Beyond Homophily: A Decade of Advances in

Understanding Peer Influence Processes. Journal of Research on Adolescence: The

Official Journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 166179.

Dane, A. V., & Marini, Z. A. (2014). Overt and Relational Forms of Reactive Aggression in

Adolescents: Relations with Temperamental Reactivity and Self-Regulation. Personality

and Individual Differences, 60, 60-66.

Dijkstra, J. K., Berger, C., & Lindenberg, S. (2011). Do Physical And Relational Aggression

Explain Adolescents' Friendship Selection? The Competing Roles of Network

Characteristics, Gender, and Social Status. Aggressive Behavior, 37(5), 417-429.

Laursen, B., Hafen, C. A., Kerr, M., & Stattin, H. (2012). Friend Influence Over Adolescent

Problem Behaviors As A Function Of Relative Peer Acceptance: To Be Liked Is to Be

Emulated. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 8894.

Michaels, L., Fey, T. Paramount Pictures Corporation. (2004). Mean Girls. Hollywood, Calif:

Paramount.

Underwood, M. K., & Rosen, L. H. (Eds.). (2011). Social development: Relationships in Infancy,

Childhood, and Adolescence. Guilford Press.