The Mean Girls effect: Women enjoy it when their friends are nasty towards people they dislike

Anyone who’s been through high school will already know that the iconic 2003 film ‘Mean Girls’ was more of a documentary than a comedy.

But a new study may provide insight into why many women gravitate towards friendship groups that emulate Regina George and her famous ‘Plastics’.

Researchers at Oklahoma State University in the US surveyed 1,183 people about their preferences for same-sex best friend behaviors.

This revealed that many people, both men and women, prefer friends who are kind to us, but cruel to our enemies.

They say this is because these people behave in ways that ‘maximize the benefits of friendship’ by supporting us and undermining our adversary.

Study participants’ average preferences for their best friend’s traits by the person (myself, stranger, or enemy) on the receiving end of them

There has been a lot of research into how people like to be treated by their friends, which generally, unsurprisingly, indicates that we like to be treated. treat us well.

But, just as Lindsay Lohan’s Cady finds herself replacing her real friends with Rachel McAdams’ ‘mean girl’ Regina, sometimes it seems kindness isn’t all we’re looking for.

For his study, published in the journal Elsevier Evolution and Human BehaviorThe psychologists wanted to investigate the behavioral preferences of friends when addressing others, including strangers and enemies.

“Because one’s friends also interact with other people, including one’s rivals, we suggest that people sometimes prefer friends who behave more monstrously than brotherly love,” they wrote.

To do this, they surveyed people in student and non-student communities in the US, as well as non-student communities in India.

They were asked to rate different behaviors by how much they would like to see them in a best friend on a scale of one to seven.

These covered kindness, honesty, cruelty, indifference, exploitative behavior, similarity, physical proximity, familiarity, and even-handedness in conflict.

In some of the surveys these hypothetical behaviors were not directed at anyone, but in some they were directed specifically at the participant, the participant’s enemy, or a stranger.

In ‘Mean Girls,’ Lindsay Lohan’s Cady (right) finds herself replacing her real friends (left, center) with Rachel McAdams’ ‘mean girl’ Regina George.

The results revealed that, in general, people want their friends to be kind and trustworthy with themselves and with strangers.

However, they also wanted them to demonstrate these ‘prosocial’ behaviors more towards themselves than towards strangers and enemies.

The researchers say this makes sense, since one function of friends that sets them apart from others is that they provide “preferential support.”

Participants also indicated that they look for friends who are more cruel to their enemies than they are themselves.

Sometimes, in fact, they prefer that they act viciously or indifferently towards these adversaries than with kindness and honesty.

The same did not apply to strangers, as participants generally preferred their friends to act kindly toward them rather than cruelly.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised if we see someone endorsing a friend’s behavior that they previously criticized another person for displaying.

As long as the friend is directing this behavior at his enemy, this may reflect “deeply strategic social cognition.”

They are choosing friends who might deter their enemy from harming them, rather than those who simply demonstrate general prosocial characteristics.

“This framework could help explain cases where sports fans, voters, and other coalition members accept or even celebrate behavior they would otherwise consider immoral,” they wrote.

‘As long as that behavior is enacted in a way that benefits oneself (for example, as when my friend’s cruelty harms my enemy)’.