Stereotypes In The Breakfast Club

Adolescence and high school years are marked by the development of identity, relationships, and societal roles. It is during this time that adolescents begin to place a significant amount of importance to whether they belong or not, their physical appearance, and friendships. During this time, everyone experiences being labeled or classified into a category that more than likely, they do not belong to. This is because society tends to place people in groups according to hobbies, personality traits, and common interests. In most cases, stereotypes motivate this kind of behavior. For example, there is a saying that says, “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” In other words, your companions say a lot about who you are as an individual. These assumptions are what

continues to encourage stereotypes. Furthermore, in these so-called social spheres, individuals experience conformity and the phenomenon of fundamental attribution error. The Breakfast Club is the perfect example of how stereotypes, conformity, and in group bias coincide.

In this movie, a group of five students who are part of very different cliques are stuck together in Saturday detention. However, little did they know that aside their differences, they would discover each other’s personal feelings and through their similarities, develop friendships.
Stereotypes
A stereotype is a generalized “belief about the personal attributes of a group of people… [which] are supported by negative beliefs” (Myers, 2013, p. 309). Stereotypes can be either accurate or inaccurate. The Breakfast Club shows how people place others, including ourselves into categories. This is how we are able to assimilate the world around us and know to be able to communicate with more facilitation. From the very beginning of the film, we are introduced to the main characters. The audience is able to see how each character is assigned a stereotypical role. The first character we are introduced to is Andrew Clark, the athlete or the jock. Then we are introduced to Brian Johnson, the nerd. Next, we are introduced to John Bender, which seems to be the typical trouble maker. After that, we are introduced to Claire Standish, who is the typical popular girl that

everyone seems to aspire to be like. Finally, the last character we are introduced to is Allison Reynolds, the emo, most awkward, and anti-social individual at school. She has no friends and does not speak one word. The movie does a phenomenal work at creating an atmosphere or discomfort when the students are alone in the library. It is clear that they see each other very differently and assume that their stereotypical roles define who they truly are. This is an example of “automatic stereotypes and attitudes…that [we associate with] either a social category [or] a particular semantic content” (Vierkant & Hardt, 2015, p. 253). For example, there is a scene where Bender tries to impersonate Brian’s home life. He assumes that his life at home is perfect because he is a nerd. In addition, stereotypes could be considered an integrated form of mentality. However, they “are not integrated with our stance…which is our set of values, beliefs and attitudes that form the roughly coherent standpoint from which we understand the world.” (Vierkant & Hardt, 2015, p. 255). For example, we see a constant hatred between Bender and Andrew. Bender begins to insult every single person in that room by automatically calling out their “stereotypical behavior”. Yet we see that in the end, their values and attitudes have allowed them to meet each other in a more profound way.
On another note, the stereotypes have created a very confined environment between the characters that create separation. These students attend the same school, might be on the same course, and might even attend similar events, but prior to detention, they have never conversed with each other. During their detention, they are able to set aside the social norms and the prejudiced behavior that these stereotypes have created. By the end of the film, the students were able to learn how to interact with each other, learning personal details that allowed them to find a common ground. In fact, they were able to realize that stereotypes do not define who a person really is. Eventually, the students had placed aside all the negative stereotypes they held against one another. When activated, “negative stereotypes can be understood as a threat to a person’s positive social identity” (Martiny, Roth, Jelenec, Stefffens, & Croizet, 2012, p. 65). For example, in various situations, Richard Vernon, the administrator in charge, insults Bender by saying that individuals like him will always fail and end up in jail. Research says that the more a person “perceives themselves as being part of [a] negatively stereotyped group, the more will their self-concept be harmed” (Martiny, et al., 2012, p. 65). This explains why Bender has such a hostile and defensive attitude. He has always been classified as a failure, a person that will never do anything with his life. It would only make sense that he would “highly identify [himself with] negative stereotypes… [making him] vulnerable to stereotype threat” (Martiny, et al., 2012, p. 65). Thus, stereotypes have the power to hurt an individual’s self-concept, causing them to depend on groups to discover their identity. These students were able to come to terms with their struggles, their flaws, their differences, but the most important of them all, their similarities. By being able to do this, they were able to step outside of their group mentality and strengthen their self-concept, their true identity as independent individuals.
Conformity
While Bender is desperately seeking to get out of the library, he remembers that he has an illegal substance in his locker. He sneaks out of the library while the others warn him that Mr. Vernon will be furious. Shortly after, everyone follows and together they possess the illegal substance. Being that Bender is the trouble maker of the group, he decides to smoke the illegal substance while in detention. The rest of the students have a hard time on deciding on whether to join him or not. Claire is the first one to conform. Then we see Andrew and Brian struggling within themselves, and Andrew shrugs giving a sign of surrender. Brian, knowing best from what is right and wrong seems to struggle the most, but eventually gives in. Allison then decides to join because she has nothing else to do. This is what social psychologists define as conformity. Conformity is “not only acting how other people act, it is also being affected by how they act” (Myers, 2013, p. 188). In other words, it is a change in behavior or even beliefs in order to be in agreement with others. To enter in further detail, this scene is an example of normative influence. Claire, Andrew, Brian, and Allyson conformed because of their “desire to fulfill [Bender’s] expectations, [in order to] gain [his] acceptance” (Myers, 2013, p. 213). According to research, “other people’s behavior can have a significant impact on one’s own behavior” (Knoll, Weinberg, Speekenbrink, & Blakemore, 2015, p.7). In addition, “normative conformity might be prompted by an awareness of social norms; that is, [in this particular film the students] made decisions on the basis of expected or acceptable behavior” (Knoll, et al., 2015, p. 2). This supports the notion that adolescents are more prone to social conformity because of their desire to be accepted by their social influence group, regardless of the present risks. Thus, when it came to smoking Marijuana, they all gave in.
Furthermore, other examples of conformity include the pressures that these students undergo and how they uncritically adopt the social norms. The first example is Andrew and his father. Andrew mentions that the only reason he humiliated a student was because his father always pressures him into being like him when he was in high school. Here we see conformity in the form of compliance. Compliance “an agreeable behavioral response to a request made by another individual” (Song, Ma, Wu & Li, 2012, p.1368). However, from a socio-cognitive perspective, compliance means to agree upon the “after summarizing, judging, and deducing his/her action and attitude, even though he/she may not think it is right” (Song, et al., 2012, p.1368). Andrew states how he does not want to humiliate others like his father did, however, he longs to have his acceptance. Even though Andrew is an adolescent, he still “relies on parental advice, particularly when making decisions relevant for [to his] future” (Knoll, et al., 2015, p. 8). For example, his future in wrestling. His type of conformity is internal. For instance, in his case, his father is always nagging at him for not being tough, the best, or essentially a bully. This psychological pressure leads him to conform to his father’s wishes, which is why he is in detention. He allows his father to make all his decisions. In stark contrast, we have Allyson who dresses in black, her face is covered by hair, and she rarely speaks. Towards the end of the film, Claire gives her a makeover. After this makeover, Andrew seems to have an interest in her and at the end, they kiss. Thus, Allyson had to change her appearance in order to conform to what Claire so calls the “ideal appearance”. She is now accepted by others. With regard to her own opinion of her makeover, the audience is not sure, thus, the type of conformity cannot be defined. However, the audience is able to see that she has conformed to this new look in order to gain acceptance from Andrew and in the future, from others.
Fundamental Attribution Error
According to decades of research, the fundamental attribution error says that typically, individuals underestimate the degree to which behavior is caused. This is because we attribute behavior to dispositional explanations rather than situational. “Constructing explanations is vital for humans [to comprehend] reality” (Gill & Andreychik, 2014, p. 1). In fact, being able to explain one’s own acts and outcomes has resulted in profound effects on individual adaptation (Gill & Andreychik, 2014, p. 1).Most people find it rather comforting to assume that bad situations occur to people because they deserve it. It is a way of supporting the idea that the world is fair. An example of this is when Bender is acting out what his household is like. He shares with the other students that his father is abusive, an alcoholic, violent, and devalues him by insulting him. Andrew then makes a remark stating that it is what he deserves for being so reckless. Furthermore, Mr. Vernon also tells him that he deserves to go to jail because he will never become someone important in life. Throughout the movie, we can see the fundamental attribution error through the way Bender is treated. Rather than considering his awful household, they see him as a reckless teenage boy that no one likes because of his behavior. Unfortunately, we tend to explain others’ behavior through our own understanding of reality, therefore, we do not view others’ behaviors in terms of situational explanations. Further research says that this psychological bias “occurs spontaneously when people meet others, without the need for conscious intervention” (Moran, Jolly & Mitchell, 2014, p. 569). In terms of the cognitive process behind fundamental attribution error, when we attempt to understand other people’s intentions or behavior, “we mentalize about them—that is, we seek to represent the contents of others’ minds” (Moran, Jolly & Mitchell, 2014, p. 569). Mentalizing refers to the sense we have of ourselves and others as individuals whose actions are motivated by our mental state. Often when we communicate with others, we go to the extent to base our responses on the way we interpret others’ behavior. For example, Claire and Bender are always fighting because they are interpreting each other’s behavior such way that causes anger and hostility. Through mentalizing, we adopt an intentional stance, which then implies that understanding others is best achieved by assuming those actions are guided intentions” (Moran, Jolly & Mitchell, 2014, p. 569). Furthermore, the social brain consists of the medial pFC, posterior cingulate cortex, TPJ, and STS. Together, these parts of the brain specialize in social knowledge representation. Also, they are active when we “consider othersʼ minds both explicitly and spontaneously”, in other words, either in a dispositional or situational manner (Moran, Jolly & Mitchell, 2014, p. 569). In fact, research has found that the medial pFC and the posterior lateral temporal cortices (mentalizing) can predict “whether perceivers attributed dispositional or situational causes to another person’s ambiguous behavior.” These cognitive mechanisms are only one aspect of the fundamental attribution error, however, there are many more factors that influence a person’s thoughts.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Breakfast Club shows us the different aspects of societal influence. Our society has almost engraved in us the concepts of stereotypes, conformity, and the fundamental attribution error. We can see how stereotypes have the power to create strong, yet invisible barriers among individuals, prohibiting them from communicating with each other because of assumptions. We see how conformity does not allow our true identity to grow or to develop. Conformity is also very powerful with regard to influencing behavior and changing attitudes. Finally, we know that the fundamental attribution error desensitizes individuals from actually taking into consideration the real motivation behind a person’s behavior. With the exception of Allyson’s physical transformation, the students successfully break the social norms and develop friendships that would have ever developed, had they not been together in a library