COMA101- EVT

I can never lose someone who I never had.

In the movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten days, the lead stars dive into a game of wits as the two try to outsmart each other and thereby, acomplishing their personal plans. But did they really do so?
Andie is a smart girl. Had a post-graduate degree, got her self a good job and the ideals of a real woman. Ben, on the other hand is a cunning advertising executive. Andie is on the mission to find, date and lose a guy while Ben has to find date and make a woman fall in love with him - all of these in just ten days.

But as these two try to wrestle with fate and find ways to acomplish their plans, Andie and Ben accidentally find each other in love- unexpectedly.

Burgoon’s Expectancy Violation Theory is seen in the movie for a couple of times. EVT attempts to explain people’s reactions to unexpected behavior. Expectancies are primarily based upon social norms. Andie and Ben’s first date for example, where a lot of Ben’s expectations were not met by Andie’s bahavior (driven by her goal to turn him off).

Consequently, when a violation occurs in the relationship and expectations are not met, arousals and reactions happen in the person’s cognitive functions. These reactions may be classified as positive or negative, nonetheless, reactions are still present.

However, in the movie, even if Andie violates much of the expectations of Ben, where the social norms demands for negative reacton, he remains persistent. Maybe it was because of his own personal plans too, but at the end of the day, it just wasn’t.

No matter how hard they tried to outwit and outplay each other, still, they ended up falling in love. No matter how hard Andie tries to be a bitch and lose that one guy who she learned to love, it was still to no avail. No matter how hard Ben tries to control his feelings he unconsciously falls very hard with Andie.

Here, we see that even the EVT can be a tool to acomplish one’s plans and still fail when emotion strikes. Yes, EVT can help one to have the desired outcome but still, it should be noted that focus is crucial. No matter how hard we try to manipulate and gain the upper hand, we just can’t. Love is such a powerful competion.
At the middle of the movie, when Ben appeared to have been turne off by Andie, I thought and thought really hard about this thing that my blocmate said: shouldn’t he be turned on first so that Andie can turn him off?

What a crazy world. Aye.

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