Perception is very much affected by an individual’s culture, experiences, and personal preferences/principles. It deals a lot with both verbal and nonverbal communication, interpretation, and attribution. With verbal communication comes language. And language and words convey a person’s ideas, opinions, and emotions, which meanings are generated by its users and interpreted in different ways by the receiver.
Here are two vids to illustrate how verbal language and body language affect perception. (Due to my lack of knowledge in technology, I couldn’t create or find specific clips for the instances I wanted to show. So, I’ll give u guys the timings.)
In this first clip, from time 1.16-1.52, we can see that the guy (James) was trying to tell the girl (Blaire) something serious, but when Blaire saw the guy (Chuck) on the other side of the pool, she started saying “you’re so funny, I could just listen to you all day”. She was trying to make Chuck jealous and from her body language, James could tell. Should she have handled the situation differently? Did her glance to her right at Chuck give her away? Or was it a combination of what she said and did?
From 2.44-3.55 (first clip), we can see that James interpreted what Blaire did as using him to make Chuck jealous, and he was right. To Blaire, what she did was different to Chuck and said that “Chuck is an awful person, he does terrible things, he uses people.” What she might have meant was that compared to Chuck, what she did was a tip of the iceberg and considered a small thing. But as James said, “and you think you’re any different” made her realize that even though she thinks that its not as bad, she still used someone. This brings us to note the self-serving bias -- when we judge ourselves more tolerantly then we judge others, giving ourselves more reasons and excuses for doing what we did (it being wrong or right).
From 4.04-5.06 (first clip), we can see that the lady (Serena) was trying to help the guy (Nate) make the other woman jealous, and thus kissing him. However, they were spotted by another guy (Dan) who had no clue what was happening and had the impression that they were either together or liked each other. This is very much like attribution, trying to assign cause to human behaviour. In Dan’s head, he most likely would have been thinking “why did they kiss?”, “will it happen again in the future?”, “did they have individual control over the situation?” and “what does it say about Serena?”. The answers that he came up with, together with his own experiences with Serena, would determine how he interpreted the situation.
In the second clip, from 0.32-2.29, we can see Blaire admitting her mistake and subtly apologising to James and giving him a compliment. Why James decided to forgive her so easily I don’t really understand but maybe it was because they both had something in common – he wasn’t totally truthful to her either. When James told Blaire his true identity (Marcus Beaton) and that he was a lord, Blaire was pleasantly surprised and focused more on his title than his act of dishonesty at first. Marcus aka James, changed Blaire’s perception and impression of him when he revealed his real identity mainly because Blaire considers wealth, his title, and his accent to be very attractive attributes. It would also mean that being with him now would change her status as she associated herself with his title. It was very obvious her attitude towards him changed and this shows that liking towards another person is increased when he possesses characteristics that we consider favourable.
Do post your thoughts and comments or if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments section! Hope to hear from you guys soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Blair's actions were driven by jealousy and insecurity in the first clip. It was quite obvious that she wanted to make Chuck jealous by appearing to have a good time with James. Her over-the-top comments were said at an inappropriate time, and the glancing didn't help either. Those two signs were giveaways. Oddities in verbal and both non-verbal behaviors were displayed.
In the second clip, the concept of Proximity can also be applied. Being associated with James/Marcus was now a favorable thing for her and she would want to let everyone know that she was related to such a powerful and handsome person. By continuing to be with him, people meeting them initially and knowing only of his status might think that she was similarly affluential as they would group the 2 of them together. Her shallowness is revealed.
In the end, no matter what she does, it makes for good fodder for creating excitement in the Gossip Girls show. ;D Blair blair - causing perpetual scandals.
Post a Comment