Essay on Social Psychology in Fight Club - 1687 Words

Deinviduation and Attraction in Fight Club Fight Club is a complex movie in that the two main characters are just two sides of the same person. Edward Norton’s character is the prototypical conformist consumer working a morally questionable office job to feed his obsession with material possessions. He works as a recall coordinator for a â€Å"major car company† and applies a formula based on profitability, rather than safety, to determine the necessity of a recall. Though never explicitly stated, he seems to be in his late twenties or early thirties and throughout the movie has a constantly haggard appearance because of his insomnia and fighting. Brad Pitt’s character is a carefree nonconformist and the manifestation of Edward Norton’s†¦show more content†¦We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives† (1:10:00). Fight Club is their escape from their real lives but as they com plete each homework assignment and mission Tyler gives them they transform completely from regular people into terrorists. Fight Club is very deep and intricate, and as such it is difficult to pinpoint two specific concepts to focus on for analysis, but I think deindividuation and the attraction theory of similarity are two theories vitally important to the film that should be addressed. The textbook describes deindividuation as â€Å"the reduced sense of individual identity accompanied by diminished self-regulation that comes over a person when he or she is in a large group† (Social Psychology, 64). Someone that is deindividuated in a group will feel a sense of anonymity as well as a diffusion of responsibility. Simply being in a large group creates in people arousal and a stimulus and sensory overload, and as they become less aware of themselves and more aware of their immediate environment they become more impulsive and responsive to behavioral cues. In essence people lose their inhibitions and as a group act impulsively, which by human nature often leads to violence. The attraction theory of similarity is described in the book as simply that â€Å"people tend to like other people who are similar to themselves† (Social Psychology, 98). There are five main reasons that similarityShow MoreRelatedFight Club By Chuck Palahniuk1442 Words   |  6 PagesFight Club At first glance, Chuck Palahniuk’s award-winning novel Fight Club gives the impression that it is a simple story revolving around a man who struggles to manage his insomnia. However, a deeper literary analysis will show readers that the novel is much more than that. 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