Social Psychology in the Movie Hunger Games

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The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games is a film by Gary Ross released in 2012. The plot revolves around Panem. It is a nation where participants from each of the twelve districts are chosen as “tributes” to the Hunger Games. It is a televised game in which tributes fight to the death, and the last one standing wins (Ross, 2012). There are scenes in the film that depict social psychology through the characters’ actions. Thus, this paper aims to highlight the social psychology in the movie Hunger Games, specifically cognitive dissonance, conformity, and empathy-altruism theories.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The film’s first social psychology theory is the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. This theory is demonstrated by Hunger Games participants killing other participants to survive. Despite being taught that killing is wrong and immoral (Ross, 2012, 01:06:58). According to cognitive dissonance theory, psychological tension happens when people’s behavior contradicts their views and beliefs. Since a person has a natural tendency to keep all attitudes and behaviors in accord and avoid disharmony, this underlying tension motivates an individual to adopt a viewpoint that results in consistency between thoughts and behaviors. Furthermore, there are several causes of cognitive dissonance, including forced compliance behavior, decision-making, and effort. Forced compliance occurs when people do something that contradicts their beliefs (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019). For example, if people are required to do something against their will. Decisions are the second source of cognitive dissonance. All decisions in life may cause dissonance because each decision has a consequence (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019). For example, a person may struggle to choose a career. A person can choose between a job that pays well and provides benefits but has a poor working environment and one that does not pay and compensate well but has a good working environment. Thus, decisions cause dissonance. The third cause of cognitive dissonance is effort. Dissonance would occur if people put in much effort to achieve something and then deem it harmful (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019). For instance, a student who stays up all night studying for an exam still fails. The student may experience cognitive dissonance because they know they exert effort, but the results are negative. In addition, the film illustrates this theory. Everyone understands that killing is a mortal sin that is strictly forbidden. The reason why the characters experience cognitive dissonance is because of forced compliance behavior. The competition requires participants to kill each other to survive and win. As a result, the participants are forced to kill others against their will. The characters are also attacking and killing other players to receive additional support from the sponsors outside the game. Katniss Everdeen, the main character, finds a way to achieve concordance by teaming up with another participant, not killing but winning the game (Ross, 2012, 02:07:01). Hence, that particular scene from the movie illustrates cognitive dissonance theory and ways to reduce it.
Conformity Theory