RUNNING HEAD: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PRINCIPLES IN THE BLIND SIDE 1

Social Psychology Principles in The Blind Side

Alexis C. Anthony

Department of Psychology, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

PSY 3310: Social Psychology

Prof. Gretchen Sechrist

August 2nd, 2020

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Social Psychology Principles in The Blind Side

Introduction

Social psychology is the study of how one understands and acts in any given social

situation. Within social psychology there are principles that examine it as a whole. Some of these

principles include prejudice, conflict theory, self-regulation, and many others. In the film The

Blind Side, a lot of these principles were touched upon. Some of those in the film are, but not

limited to, groupthink, discrimination, social norms, and persuasion.

Social Psychology Principles Used in the Film

In the beginning of the film, Big Mike is trying to get enrolled into a primarily all white

school district. While the teachers are in their meeting discussing his ineligibly to succeed at

their school, they were all focusing in his past failures. His record showed that he had barely

passing grades and was just pushed from one school to the next. However, they thought he would

be a great asset to their football team. In a future meeting just, days into Mike starting school

there, the teachers continued to discuss how he was not meeting the standards or comparing to

the other students. One teacher on the other hand, saw something in Mike after finding a short

writing of his called White Walls. She decided to go forward and give Mike an oral exam. Here

he performed better than ever seen before. After receiving this information, the other teachers

looked at Mike different, they saw potential in him and began to work with him.

The social psychology principle that is prevalent in this scene is groupthink. Groupthink

is when a group tries to come to a cohesive agreement among all members. This tends to be a

longer process and takes a lot of work and persuasion.

As all the teachers were ready to write Mike off, something that was found indicated that

he was able to do more than they thought. After the evidence of his writing ability and his higher
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exam grade, the teachers saw potential and together, decided to work with him. They began to

help him and give him the guided attention he needed to be successful. The type of attention that

he had not received from the other schools. As a group, they made the decision to help Mike,

they even got his grades high enough for him to play football in the spring semester.

While Leigh Anne was out to lunch to with a group of her higher-class friends, she asked

them what they thought about “the other side of town.” By this, she was referring to Mikes home

that she has visited in just a previous scene. Her friends all laughed and made jokes, using the

well-known slang word “the projects” to describe it. Not knowing what Leigh Anne was talking

about they made a rude comment asking if this was one of her next charity cases, “a project for

the projects.” As Leigh Anne was not happy to hear what was coming out of their mouths, seen

through her non-verbal cues of facial expressions, she did not further the conversation.

The social psychology principle discrimination is seen very clearly in this scene.

Discrimination is the act of one having different views or enacting behaviors toward people of a

different social groups, these views and behaviors tend to be negative as well. An example of

discrimination learned through this course would be the experiment conducted called “A Class

Divided.” In this experiment, a teacher had students divided into two groups, blue eyed and

brown eyed. One day, those who had blue eyes were superior to those with brown eyes. The next

day, the roles switched. The students who were superior that day looked down on the students of

the other eye color. Even the student who were classified as the less superior group looked down

on themselves. The students would do things like pick on the other group, receive privileges over

the non-superior group, and even start physical altercations. These students solely discriminated

against the other students, because they were told they were different and better.
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In this scene of the film, Leigh Anne’s friends discriminated against the projects due to

the different type of social group that lives there. Most of them never even setting foot into that

side of town or holding a conversation with anyone that lives there still had very negative

comments to make. They acted is a negative manner, laughed, and made jokes all because they

were a part of a different social group than them. One member they were out to lunch with stated

that she even grew up there, that she worked hard and got to where she was. Her sentence

insinuating that she was better than them.

Around the holidays, the Tuohy family was taking their annual Christmas card pictures

and invited Mike into one. This being the one they sent out to all their family and friends. One

cousin gave them a call after receiving it with concerns of his presence. Leigh Anne just brushed

it off, chuckled a little, and continued on with her dy. She then attended another lunch with her

girlfriends and here they also expressed their concerns. After Leigh Anne set them straight,

explaining how wonderful of a young man he was, she stated that Big Mike was changing her

life.

In this scene, Leigh Anne and the rest of the Tuohy family were breaking a social norm.

Social norms are, typically unspoken, rules determining how people are anticipated to act in a

given situation. A good example of this that was provided during the course would be the idea of

riding in an elevator. When you get in an elevator, you tend to stand straight forward, facing the

doors, staying pretty quiet. Now imagine you stand facing the back of the elevator and start a

conversation with everyone that enters, or sing to the music, or some other act that probably

sounds crazy. This would be classified as breaking a social norm.

When the Tuohy’s put Mike in their Christmas card, to everyone in their lives, this was

breaking a social norm. Even Mr. Tuohy made a face when Leigh Anne invited him in the photo.
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They live in a community that in primarily white, and to invite a man of a different race, who all

their family and friends have never met before, was very odd to them. The Tuohy’s broke what

the society they lived in thought was an unspoken rule.

When Big Mike begins to play football, he is nothing short of a gentle giant. He does not

want to hurt anyone or anything. As a left tackle, his job is to take down the other team’s

defense. However, he is struggling with this. When Leigh Anne sees this, she knows she must

persuade Mike into doing his job as a left tackle. She uses a message to target his protective

instincts. She compares protecting his team to the way he has protected the Tuohy family. Once

he perceived this message, he was unstoppable.

In this scene, Leigh Anne uses the social psychology principle of persuasion. Persuasion

is defined as one’s efforts to change someone else’s outlook or acts through convincing means,

such as messages or signals. An example to explain persuasion would be a kid at the store with

his parents. They will do whatever it takes to get a toy, candy, or whatever the desired target is.

They will talk about all the good they have done, or how they have done all their chores. They

are trying to persuade their parent through messages of things they have done to deserve the

reward.

When Leigh Anne saw the opportunity to persuade Mike into meeting his full potential

with football she knew she had the perfect message to do so. When she channeled his protective

instinct Mike played like they had never seen before. He protected his team because they are his

family and he knows he had to have their backs. The same was he has had the back of the whole

Tuohy family.
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Discussion

In the film The Blind Side, the story of a kid, Big Mike, was brushed off by everyone in

his life. Although, with the help of Leigh Anne and the rest of the Tuohy family, Mike grows

into the exceptional person that was always inside of him. Throughout this film, many social

psychology principles were used. Group think was used through the teachers helping him with

his grades and school work. Discrimination was used when Leigh Anne’s friends looked down

on Mike and where he was from. Social norms were broken when the Tuohy family took Mike in

and even put him in their Christmas card. Finally, persuasion was used when Leigh Anne helped

Mike with his football game.

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Works Cited

Baron, R. A., Branscombe, N. R., & Bryne, D. R. (n.d.). Social Psychology (12th ed.).