This blog post examines how stereotypes and confirmation bias can shatter an individual’s daily life and lead to collective violence, using the film The Hunt as a case study.
The film ‘The Hunt’, which I recently watched, provokes much thought on psychological elements and offers numerous points for reflection on our own everyday perspectives. It shockingly depicts how an individual’s innocence can be destroyed by collective prejudice and violence.
To briefly summarize the plot: After his divorce, kindergarten teacher Lucas returns to his hometown. He dreams of a happy life with his new girlfriend and his son, Marcus. Having endured a grueling divorce, Lucas’s life seemed to be starting anew, as if he had regained a quiet, stable routine. But that peace didn’t last long. One day, a minor lie told by a young girl—the daughter of Lucas’s close friend who attended the kindergarten where he worked—spreads like an epidemic through the village, rapidly changing the situation. This small lie bred distrust among the villagers, and eventually Lucas found himself wrongfully accused. Consequently, he began a lonely battle to protect himself amidst the collective violence and suspicion of the villagers. Lucas’s situation vividly portrays the psychological pressure he faces as he becomes increasingly isolated under the excessive suspicion and wariness of those around him.
I happened to see this film early this year without knowing its exact content, and it provided plenty of food for thought long after watching. It especially made me deeply reflect on ‘confirmation bias’ – the tendency to accept information that aligns with one’s beliefs while ignoring that which contradicts them. It made me question whether I could honestly say I’m free from this ‘confirmation bias’ in my own daily life. It also made me realize anew how often this bias unnecessarily causes innocent people to suffer in our society.
Beyond confirmation bias, I indirectly yet directly felt and contemplated how terrifying stereotypes and witch hunts can be. The villagers’ treatment of Lucas in the film starkly illustrates how stereotypes and prejudice can destroy a person’s life. Such cases are common in reality too, where prejudice against specific groups often leads to unnecessary conflict and suffering. For instance, when the media reports on a specific incident by providing only partial information, fostering a biased perspective, the damage falls squarely on innocent people.
In fact, I don’t believe people can be perfectly objective. That’s why we face countless misunderstandings even in our daily lives. While these misunderstandings may sometimes resolve naturally over time, they can also grow to an irreversible extent. Like Lucas in the film, small misunderstandings and lies in daily life can snowball into irreversible situations. This process starkly reveals how terrifying the consequences of stereotypes and prejudice can be. Particularly in our society, many people still unknowingly hold such biases, and we must be vigilant about how they can deeply wound others.
This film also prompted reflection on ‘cognitive dissonance theory’. This theory explains how individuals alter their attitudes or behaviors to resolve the psychological discomfort caused by inconsistencies between their beliefs, thoughts, attitudes, and actions. The greater the dissonance between one’s thoughts and attitudes, the stronger the tendency to justify oneself through attitude change. Examples of exploiting our cognitive dissonance include subjecting new members to harsh initiation rites to foster loyalty to an organization, cult-like religious groups demanding blind physical service or enormous monetary contributions from their followers, and high-end restaurants charging exorbitant prices to retain customers.
In this film, the protagonist Lucas becomes entangled in the townspeople’s collective cognitive dissonance when a lie told by a young girl spreads as if it were the truth. No matter how much Lucas proclaims his innocence, no one believes him. This creates sustained tension and anxiety throughout the film, deeply immersing the audience in the protagonist’s desperate situation.
In the film’s latter half, we witness how a young girl’s small lie completely destroys a person’s life. Though the truth emerges years later, everything has already changed. Lucas, his family, and acquaintances still face threats from an unspecified crowd. This scene reminds the audience that even after the truth is revealed, the wounds and fear remain. Furthermore, in the final scene, Lucas nearly loses his life to a bullet fired by someone – and that shooter was none other than one of his closest companions from the hunting trip. This scene symbolically shows that even those who believed in Lucas’ innocence from start to finish weren’t entirely free from doubt.
The film’s title, ‘The Hunt,’ literally means ‘hunting,’ but in this context, it symbolizes not the simple pursuit of animals, but a merciless witch hunt targeting a human being. The film starkly reveals how a witch hunt can destroy an individual and how devastating the consequences can be. This parallels the phenomenon we often encounter in daily life, where rumors or baseless gossip about celebrities are collectively believed as truth and lead to personal attacks.
In real life, the number of people harmed by such witch hunts is likely far greater than we imagine. Watching the film made me realize that witch hunts should be rare, not commonplace. It drove home the urgent need for mental reform and effort to minimize our confirmation bias, even if we can never fully eliminate it.
The protagonist ‘Lucas’ could easily be any one of us. Viewers deeply empathize with Lucas’s emotions through this film, experiencing a complex mix of pity, anger, fear, frustration, and injustice. Even now, I cannot forget the heavy, complicated feelings I felt after watching this movie. The powerful message this film conveys is the hope for a society where innocent people no longer suffer harm or become victims. For this aspiration to move beyond a mere ideal and become a achievable goal, each of us must make an effort.
