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Watching Bridget Jones - The Horns Effect

Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001 romantic comedy based on a novel by the same name that is in turn based on the novel Pride and Prejudice as an adaptation. The story follows the main character Bridget Jones who is a woman looking for love in her early 30's.

At the beginning of the film her mother tries to set her up with a childhood friend named Mark Darcy. She rejects him because of the outfit he is wearing despite she finds him physically attractive. Mark rejects her likewise on similar points. There is what is described as a halo effect, being "the tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person on the basis of one positive characteristic". It is not such a huge leap then to think there may be a horns effect, in which a negative trait can create an overall negative perspective. This might explain the disdain the two character's share throughout first third of the film.

Bridget instead pursues a relationship with her boss, Daniel Cleaver. As Bridget explore this relationship, we are invited into her self-talk though both an internal monologue and in diary entries. First we are treated to seeing the events unfold and then we are exposed to Bridget's feelings on the mater. During the first half of the film Bridget spends most of her time dealing with the fallacy of approval. She spend so much time seeking approval that she tends to create negative self-talk the leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where concentration on the issues leads to the issues.

Mark's opinion of Bridget changes over the course of the film as Daniel takes more interest in her. At the party Daniel says to Bridget "I think I'm falling for you" as he falls out of a boat. Bridget sees this as the relationship intensifying, Daniel is only experimenting. This miscommunication leads to Daniel avoiding the relationship and eventually Bridget terminating the relationship by quitting her employment under Daniel.

This leads to a change in Bridget from negative self-talk to positive self-talk by discontinuing to rely on the approve of others as part of her motivation for behavior. Bridget's communications become more task oriented instead of relationship orientated in her place of work and vice-versa in her time with her friends and family. This is the opposite of her position at the beginning of the film.

Daniel and Mark are most notably different in their non-verbal communication. Proxemics is "the study of the way people and animals use space". Daniel is more territorial. He occupies a space of power and often uses touching. He is often physically, and thus metaphorically, positioned on a higher level than Bridget. He is free to enter into her space, but his space is implicitly forbidden. Mark on the other hand keeps his distance to the point of lurking at times. He stand very rigidly in his posture with his hands always held close to his body as to not accidentally touch anyone. In the beginning of the film, he seems defensive when Bridget touches him on the chest. But, in the scene in which Mark descends the staircase to tell Bridget his feelings for her, he is physically coming down to Bridget's level, but metaphorically he is refusing to put himself above her any longer. He wants to share his space with her, which is a big deal for Mark.

Over the course of the film there is several conflicts between different parties in the film. The main conflict, however, is between Mark, Daniel, and Bridget over who will ultimate win over Bridget's affections, until the sequel anyway. The first characters that met, in the plotline, were Bridget and Mark. They took the avoiding approach, or "when people non-assertively ignore or stay away from conflict", to the conflict. Neither of them were ready to participate. They were thrown together into non-ideal circumstances by their mothers.

Bridget and Daniel, who worked together, were not ideally suited for each other and had different goals. They were willing to use compromising to make their relationship work, but only to a certain extent. When Mark is finally ready to participate in a relationship with Bridget, he finds it morally objectionable because she is already in a relationship with Daniel, so, he uses an accommodating strategy by giving up his own needs for Bridget and Daniel.

After Bridget breaks her relationship with Daniel, Mark changed to a collaborating strategy to find out what her feelings and intentions are. Daniel, after his break up with Bridget, turned to passive aggression at the office and then a more direct aggression when he showed up drunkenly at Bridget's dinner party. This led to a conflict ritual in which Mark and Daniel punched each other on the face while minimum wage workers cheered for them until Bridget made a decision. She in turn responded with avoidance again. It eventually ends with Bridget and Mark compromising. Bridget compromises her self-exploration and Mark compromises his career path and other romantic relationship.

Bridget Jones's Diary, can be a useful way to study many concepts in interpersonal communications. There are examples of romantic relationships, friendships, Family relationships, and even professional relationships. There are examples of self-talk, body language, proxemics, conflict resolutions, and other not brought up in this paper. Although if one were to apply these strategies to one's own life, might I suggest you skip the one where you punch people in the face while It's Raining Men plays in the background.

References

Bridget Jones's diary [Motion picture]. (2001). Miramax Home Entertainment.

Adler, R., & Proctor, R. (2014). Looking out, looking in (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.