Mean Girl Stereotypes

Basing actions off of perception extends far beyond the literary worlds created by McLiam Wilson and Phillips. In an experiment by Behm-Morawitz, Lewallen, and Miller, the researchers found that the actions perceived in reality TV shows had an effect on the attitudes and behaviors of young female viewers. Viewers who watched romance reality TV shows were more likely to hold egalitarian gender role beliefs, while watching makeover and docusoap reality TV programming increased the likelihood that viewers believed females to be socially aggressive, what researchers called “the mean girl stereotype.” This preliminary research suggests that the perception of gender and action on television can have an effect on individual’s behavior in their daily life. This shows that viewers may find acceptable forms of gender and behavior that significantly changes their own behavior. Again, they are modeling their behavior off of a perception that may or may not exist. This all boils down to what Karl Popper termed a “testable hypothesis.” In his work, “Science as Falsification,” Popper attempts to distinguish when a theory is a true

Phillips displays later in the novel that Gabriel’s impression of England was in fact, incorrect, as he spends much of the later part of the novel imprisoned. The reason for his imprisonment further supports this idea as Gabriel was imprisoned initially based on another man’s false impression, that Gabriel was sexually harassing his daughter. Therefore, Gabriel travelled to England based on a false impression, to get imprisoned based off another false impression. We seem to have a