Trying Maya Best

  Social Psychology in the Movies: The Breakfast Club Margo Steele and Maya Moran Piedfort The Breakfast Club is a classic 1980s comedy-drama that follows five high school students from very different social groups who are forced to spend a Saturday together in detention. Claire, the “princess,” John Bender, the “criminal,” Brian, the “brain,” Allison, the “basket case,” and Andrew, the “athlete,” all find themselves under the strict supervision of the harsh and authoritarian Principal Vernon. As the day goes on and they are forced to interact, the students begin to open up about their lives, pressures, and insecurities. Through shenanigans, honest conversations, and shared experiences, they form an unlikely bond and challenge the stereotypes they once held about one another.  Social psychological concepts are central throughout The Breakfast Club , especially due to its focus on social groups and dynamics. The film illustrates a wide range of concepts, including self-monitor...

Compliance refers to how we persuade others to agree to our direct requests. Robert Cialdini (2021) is well-known for studying the strategies people use to achieve compliance effectively. In this blog, I will focus on the door-in-the-face technique , a sequential strategy (Cialdini, 1975) where you begin with a large request that you know will be rejected, then follow up with a smaller one. Because the second favor seems much more reasonable in comparison, people are more likely to agree to it.  In a classic study, Cialdini (1975) tested this technique by first asking college students to volunteer two hours a week for two years at a counseling center for troubled youth. Unsurprisingly, most students said no. The researchers then followed up with a much smaller request, asking if the students would volunteer to take kids on a two-hour trip to the zoo. Results showed that when this smaller request came after the big one, 50% of students agreed to the zoo trip—compared to just 17% ...