The novel explores the question of whether or not human social behaviors can be quantified and analyzed through its science fiction premise. Even before Jeremy Heere ingests the SQUIP, he obsesses over unspoken interpersonal rules and attempts to track his social reputation using a system he called Humiliation Sheets. The novel often capitalizes phrases that Jeremy uses, such as Humiliation Sheets or Appearance Checks, to create the impression that these are standardized and official terms. By contrasting this academic-sounding prose with the relatively normal circumstances of Jeremy’s high school life, the novel indicates that even everyday interactions are influenced by psychological phenomena.

The novel borrows the language of social psychology and evolutionary biology to depict social interaction as a contest. This cynical perspective suggests that teenagers make friends or enemies based on the costs and benefits of those relationships to their own survival. For example, when Jeremy watches the MTV reality dating show Dismissed, he sees the premise as a competition in which people like him will inevitably fail. He reflects that “the result—cutthroat social contest, all day, everyday; death to the ugly; death to the stammerers; death to the faces that got scarred in a playground sometime—stays the same” (33-34), no matter who the contestants on the show are.