The Representation of Bias Perception in “Nocturnal Animals” Movie

Over the decades, the process of communication within human kind has become inevitable. The process of synchronizing information transmits and received is a little more complex due to the disruption called miscommunication. Miscommunication could happen from misinterpretation in the meaning intended by the sender. Misinterpretation can be caused due to psychological noise that occurs during communication process. Psychologica l noise could refer to biases, prejudices and feelings that interfere with the accurate transmission or reception of a message. One of the movie that contains aspects bias perception is Nocturnal Animals. By using Peirce’s Semiotic Theory as the analytical method, the researcher found five out of eight elements of bias perception using Gestalt Principle theory including Similarity, Symmetry, Closure, Figure / Ground and Continuity that occurs within the ten-analytical unit (20 scenes) chosen by the researcher. Keyword— Bias perception, psychological noise, gestalt principle, peirce’s semiotic, nocturnal animals.


INTRODUCTION
Over the decades, the process of interacting within human kind has become inevitable. This process is now a basic essential living in this world. Therefore, socializing has become the main aspect of life. One of the most effective ways to socialize is through communication.
Communication is one of the most essential of human personality's growth. Lack of communication could have an effect in the development of personality. Communication is highly related to the behavior as well as past experiences of human kind. In a communication process, there are internal and external factors that might affect the process and result of it depending on the behavior, experience and environment they are exposed to (Suryanto, 2015, p.333-334).
The basic goals of communication are to get and give information, persuade as well as to ensure understanding from another party regarding a certain topic.
Although, in the application of it, synchronizing information transmits and received is a little more complex due to the disruption from one or more of the parties. This kind of disruption is called miscommunications. There are three type of miscommunications including Misunderstanding; Non-understanding; Misinterpretation (Perrin, 2015, para.2-4).
Misinterpretation can be caused due to psychological noise that occurs during communication process. It refers to biases, prejudices and feelings that interfere with the accurate transmission or reception of a message. Psychological noise may influence perceive of message. Perception itself is defined as the recognition and the responds towards a set of information (West &Turner, 2009, p.13).
The way we perceive message depends on our perception of the world. We perceive what we expect. Our perception is not necessarily the real ongoing situation. Therefore, our expectation becomes out perception. Perception is biased by three factors, as follows: the past (our experience); the present (the current context); the future (our goals). Unwittingly, Bias Perception theory has played a big role in our daily life.
Afterward, "Nocturnal Animals" is a neo-noir psychological thriller movie where the main plot of the story revolves around Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) who is haunted by her past through a novel written by her exhusband (IMDB, n.d, para.1). This Hollywood movie was produced in March 2015, directed, written and co-produced by Tom Ford. The movie was made based on 1993 novel "Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright (Flemming, 2015, May 17, para. [3][4][5].
Here, the researcher is interested in the phenomenon of bias perception within the story in the manuscript in relation to the life story of the main character in this movie. The bias perception phenomenon is a psychological noise in human communication that very often occurs in the daily life experience.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW Bias Perception
The glass could be half full or half empty. The optimist says "half full" and the pessimist says "half empty". This is a simple example of bias perception. Every single thing has different meanings based on how people perceive, judge, evaluate and understand the situation (Jussim, 2012, p.3).The way people view the world is not necessarily the exact thing that is happening. People perception is based on what people want to perceive and perceive what they expect to perceive. Therefore, people perception is basically its own expectation, since our perception is biased.
Human visual perception is explained through Gestalt Principle. This principle started off back in the 1920s where a group of German psychologists developed a series of theories of visuals perception to analyse how humans can perceive different objects into one group when presented or arranged together in a particular that would make sense in human sense. This theory is called Gestalt Theory or collectively known as Gestalt Effect. The pioneer of this theory is Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Lewin and Wolfgang Metzger. (Geremek, Greenlee & Magnussen, 2013, p.1) To match up with present situation, there are seven most important Gestalt principle, as follows (Johnson, 2010, p.11-23):  Proximity -The distance between an object towards people affect the perception. Human tend to put objects into group depending on the distance.  Similarity -Objects that look similar will be grouped whereas the other objects are equal.  Continuity -This principle explains on human's tendency to fill out missing pieces of the data depending on the whole object. Human's visual perception is biased to perceive information continuously based on the prior information.  Closure -Human's visual system tends to perceive information as a whole object rather than seeing it in separate pieces. The missing pieces of an object is unconsciously created in our mind.  Symmetry -Human visual system somehow try to solve complex scenes by grouping it or combining it into a simpler scene.
 Figure/Ground -Human's mind has the tendency to separate a visual into two field which is the figure and the ground. The figure is the foreground of the object, whereas the ground is the background of the object. It is said that human focus on one thing, either the figure or the object.  Common Fate -The main concern of this principal is moving objects. This principle states the object that move together are perceived as grouped.

Semiotics
Semiotic is not only the study of sign but also study of system. The study itself is different depending on the founder. There's Saussure with semiology and Peirce with semiotics. These two people are known as the co-founder of semiotics (Chandler, 2017, p.2).
The general framework of Saussure is the distinction between langue (language) and parole (speech). Langue is the system of rules and convention; this makes them independent. On the other hand, parole of speech refers to the use of particular instance (Chandler, 2017, p.9). Saussurean model of sign takes that sign consist of two parts, first is the sign itself and second is its meaning. Ferdinand de Saussure's model stated that a linguistic sign is a connection between signified and signifier. Signified is the concept itself whereas signifier is the sound pattern, material or even the physical object. Saussure argued that signs are indeed formal, generalized and abstract in its system. The meaning of sign lies in their systematic relation to each other than collecting from material things. In conclusion, Ferdinand de Saussure stated that sign will only make sense if put in relation to other signs (Chandler, 2017, p.16-18).
Whereas Charles Sanders Peirce said "Sign is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity". He adapted in a triangle model consisting of representamen (sign), interpretant and object.
There are also three fundamental divisions of signs in which Peirce believes in: (Lester, 2013, p.53-55)  Symbol/Symbolic -A sign that has no logical or representational connection between them and the thing they represent. Symbolic signs are the kind of signs that is understood by its viewers due to social and cultural aspects that has a great influence towards them. The meaning of symbolic sign is often highly personalized. Words, Numbers, Colours, Gestures, Flags and Costumes are usually considered as symbolic sign. For example, white colour which means purity among Indonesians.  Icon -It is easier to interpret iconic sign as they usually most closely resemble. A sign where the relation with its reference has similarity. For example, the drawing on the restroom doors that communicate to human on the gender allowed inside or a horse statue as an icon of horse animals.  Index -Instead of a direct resemblance to an object, indexical sign has logical and most common sense connection to the thing they represent. Humans learn indexical signs through experience in their daily life. For example, a smoke is an index of fire. Another example would be the shadow of the sun moving that implies the movement of time.

III. METHOD
The method that will be used for this research is qualitative interpretive method using Semiotic by Charles Sanders Peirce. Interpretive description itself is an approach to knowledge that is different within every single person. Interpretive methodology focuses on the way in which human beings make sense of their subjective reality and attach meaning to it (Thorne, 2016, p.82). The interpretive paradigm sees truth as something subjective, and is created by the participants. In this research, the researcher itself acts as a participant of this research (West & Turner, 2008, p.75). The analysis will be guided through semiotic analysis to analyse and emphasize the film content then interpret it with the relevant theory used. The result of this research is subjective, which means having different meanings according to how people perceive it.
In order to gather the necessary data for this research, the researcher will be collecting two types of data including primary and secondary data. The primary data which will be used is the "Nocturnal Animals" film. The researcher will use this primary data to find the aspects of bias perception within the film. Then, it will be analysed using the film "Nocturnal Animals" as well as view the online ratings and comments from movie critics and audience that is related and could be a contribution to this research. From the data gathered, researcher will then be able to use the theory obtained from books and other secondary source that could be applied to this research in order to complete this research.
In order to show the process, Peirce's Semiotic Triangle will be applied. The Peircean model is hoped to show the researcher's interpretation of the data shown through the selected scenes within episodes picked. Below is a Semiotic triangle by Pierce that will be used by researcher to analyse the aspects of bias perception with Gestalt Principle in "Nocturnal Animals" movie. The triangle works as an identifying glass for researcher as it helps researcher to view all 20 scenes and 10 bias perception aspects included in Analytical Unit. Table 1.

Scene Details
Unit Analysis 1 In this scene, Susan receives a manuscript from her ex-husband where she just opened the first page and the writing says "For Susan" Story in the manuscript where The Hastings Family is on a long drive to trip. In the car, there are Tony Hastings, Laura Hastings and their daughter India Hastings sitting at the back. After reading the manuscript, Susan starts seeing things around her differently. In frame there's an art collection Susan purchased long back, but seeing it now makes her feel that frame is meant for her to reflect on the manuscript story line. The Frame reads "Revenge".

Unit Analysis 7
When Susan unwrapped the manuscript off the envelope, she found herself getting papercut from the envelope.
In the story, it is seen that Laura is unconscious with blood in her forehead and a stunt expression on her face. Next to her body, lies the body of her daughter, India. It is an accumulated feeling how she feels their relationship is going nowhere and only leading to a darker side.

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS)
In the manuscript, during their drive to Marfa. So many times the audience were shown how the road is empty and dark and it looks like a road to nowhere with no lights.
Unit Analysis 9 Susan is seen calling her daughter who is away in college and minding her own business. In the call, Susan said "Yeah, yeah. It's fine, I just wanted to hear your voice" In the manuscript, Laura and India Hastings was found unconscious, naked and dead by the authorities and Edward in the exact place where Edward last lost them couple of nights before.
Unit Analysis 10 After reading the manuscript, Susan then emailed Edward to tell him that she is deeply moved by the story and she would love to meet him while he is in town and she have much to say to him.   After reading this sentence, the scene cuts to manuscript in Susan own perception where Susan plays the "wife". The similarity aspect is shown in the word "Susan" as it is her own name and it has a sentimental value to her. She automatically perceives how the manuscript is related to her. Susan perceive herself as being part of the manuscript and somehow taking the word "For Susan" on the credit page and subconsciously turning it into "About Susan" in her head and visualize herself as the wife. o Unit Analysis 2: "Happiness taken away" is an analytical unit that is considered as one of the "crucial" moment of this movie. The reason for this is because this is the moment that captures the feeling of Edward as the writer of the manuscript and Tony as the main character of the manuscript written. Through the image captured in Scene A of this Analytical Unit is the sole reason why Edward wrote this manuscript. In Scene A and B, the similarity is shown through the orientation. Based on Oxford English Dictionary, Orientation is described as a person's feelings or believe towards an issue. The similarity in scene A and B is Edward's reaction and feeling towards the situation itself. In Scene A, Edward is seen helpless, hopeless with tears in his eyes as he saw his wife did an abortion of their unborn child and is cheating on him with another man. In Scene B, Tony who is also played by the character Edward is seen helpless, hopeless with tears in his eyes as he saw his wife and kid is kidnapped and taken away from him. Both scenes explain how his wife and kid is taken away from him. o Unit Analysis 5: "The Iconic Red Sofa" is an analytical unit that explains the feelings of Tony and Edward. In Scene A, it is a story from Susan's first marriage with Edward. Susan was reading Edward's manuscript in a red sofa, where she then commented how maybe he should take break or even give up on his writing. This is something hurtful for Edward because his wife killed his passion and career as a writer. Through this scene, the producer of this movie would like to create similarity element by creating a scene in the manuscript that uses the exact same red sofa where Tony's happiness is killed. The similarity in this analytical unit is shown through color, shape, size and value. o Unit Analysis 9: "Auburn-haired Girl" is an Analytical Unit that explains about Susan's perception towards her daughter in the manuscript and her daughter in real life. As explained before, Susan perceives herself as Laura Hastings in the manuscript. Where Laura have an auburn-haired daughter named India Hastings. Therefore, Susan perceives India is her daughter. The bias perception in this analytical unit is proven through Susan's reaction towards reading the manuscript in scene A where India is seen hurt and unconscious. Reading this, Susan felt the need to call her daughter in real life just to make sure that she is fine and not hurt like the story in the manuscript. In Scene B, it is shown how Susan's daughter is also indeed an auburn-haired girl. The similarity in this analytical unit can be seen through colour as Susan perceives India Hastings having the same hair length and colour as her daughter in real life. The similarity is also shown through orientation where Susan's feeling towards India is reflected in real life. Therefore, when India Hastings is being hurt and unconscious in the manuscript, Susan's reaction in real life is to call her daughter to make sure she is fine and not being hurt.  Closure: Closure is related to human's tendency to find and seek patterns. The way human fill out the missing pieces of information is based on each individual's past, present and goal. (Smith, 2011, p.258). the element Closure can be found in the Unit Analysis below: o Unit Analysis 1: This Analytical Unit represents bias perception through the element of Closure due to the past experience Susan had. In the credit page of the manuscript written, "For Susan" is stated. This could mean different thing to different people based on the past experiences they had. Other people named Susan reading the manuscript might not perceive this manuscript as how Susan Morrow perceives it. Other than similarity, the reason Susan Morrow sees herself as Laura Hastings in the manuscript is also because of closure element where she draws the image of Laura in her head as herself to complete the missing information or image in her head to reduce complication of what Laura looks like. This is also because of her past experience with Edward. o Unit Analysis 4: This Analytical unit is the "crucial" moment where it explains Edward's motive in writing the manuscript that created the base storyline of this movie. Researcher named this analytical unit as "Nobody writes about anything but themselves". In Scene A, the story brings the audience back to Edward and Susan's marriage when they were arguing about Edward's writing skill. Susan stated how maybe he should be writing about something else. Edward was mad and he defied Susan's opinion by saying "Nobody writes about anything but themselves" implying how every artist including writer will always create

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS)
Vol -4, Issue-3, May -Jun, 2019  https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.4.3.51  ISSN: 2456-7620 www.ijels.com Page | 926 something based on their own story or experience. Skipping to Scene B where the researcher captured the character Tony Hastings. It is seen how the character Tony is played by the same person that played Edward. As it is mentioned before how the whole manuscript is perceived from Susan's point of View where she perceive Tony Hastings being Edward due to Edward's word in Scene A. Susan unconsciously complete the missing information on how Tony looks by perceiving him as Edward. o Unit Analysis 6: "Letter Towards Revenge" is an Analytical Unit that discusses over Susan's anxiousness as she received the manuscript from her ex-husband with a letter attached to it. In the letter, Edward mentioned how his latest manuscript was inspired by her. The moment she saw this letter, she knew this manuscript must be something that discusses over their past together and it was most likely going to hurt her. Despite that fact, she still decided to read the manuscript. Skipping to Scene B where Susan is walking in her own art gallery, she saw a painting with the writing "REVENGE" where she stopped and looked at it for a while as if it is something new and she have never seen it before. She asked one of her employee where the painting did comes from and her employee was a little confused because that painting was actually something she bought 8 years back. Researcher chose this Unit Analysis to highlight how the producer is trying to portray how Susan's life turned upside down as she read the manuscript and how everything around her become something more than what it really is in her own perspective because she has the tendency to connect one incident with another and make it seem like it's interrelated. Susan sees that painting with the writing "REVENGE" on it like it was placed and framed in her office to somehow give more clues to her that the manuscript from her exhusband is indeed a revenge story towards her and having that painting hanging in her office building is to make the message clearer. The element of closure that can be seen through this unit analysis is how Susan try to make sense out of the painting by connecting the dots between the painting and the manuscript she received by the ex-husband when indeed there was no absolute connection between the two. o Unit Analysis 9: "Auburn-haired girl" is an analytical unit that is strong on the element of Similarity as the character India Hastings in the manuscript have similar characteristic as Susan's real life daughter. This unit analysis also adopts a pinch of Closure element as whatever written and being told to the audience about the manuscript and about Susan's past is in Susan's point of view.
When we as an audience were introduced to India Hastings in the story and how India looks like, it was also from Susan's perspective. As it was discovered in earlier scenes, Susan sees herself as part of the story, with that being said when she read the part where there is a daughter character in the story, she somehow draws a picture in her head that India Hastings is a auburn-haired girl, just like her real life daughter to reduce complication in her head on how the daughter looks like. She create this pattern due to her present life or knowledge.  Continuity: the element Continuity can be found in the Unit Analysis below: o Unit Analysis 3: This analytical unit is named "He's too weak for you", this analytical unit is a correlation between Susan's relationship with her mother and Susan's relationship with Edward. Susan was a realist who fell in love with a dreamer named Edward, she then asked for her mother approval of this relationship. Without thinking twice, the mother disapproved of this relationship by saying "Edward is too weak for you". To top that, the mother also mentioned how years from now Susan will realize the things that does not matter to her right now will matter to her, in terms of money and wealth which is something Edward cannot give her. Skipping to Scene B where Susan is seen arguing with Edward and wanting to break up with him. That day Edward came to know how Susan felt he is too weak for her, and she actually does care about wealth and money just like how the mother predicted she would. The element of continuity here is how unconsciously Susan turned into her mother and how she feels the way the mother does just like how the mother said she would. How she perceive Edward's attitude and personality towards her is now biased due to the prior information she got from her mother about Edward.  o Unit Analysis 7: This Analytical Unit focuses on blood where both Scene A & Scene B has blood coming out of Susan. These scenes were purposely made to enhance on the symbolism of Susan getting hurt. In Scene A, it was shown how Susan got a paper cut from opening the manuscript sent and written by her ex-husband. In Scene B, it is seen how Edward killed the wife character in the manuscript by having a group of gangster raped, hit her in the head where it is also seen the wife who Susan visualizes as herself was being hurt badly. The principle of Figure / Ground in this Analytical Unit can be seen how in both Scene Susan focuses on the foreground object which is the blood which is something Susan focuses on because of the contrast colour and ignored everything else meaning the background. o Unit Analysis 10: This Analytical Unit shows how Susan is "traumatic" over the manuscript and felt like she is being haunted with the story and characters in the manuscript. In Scene A, it is a captured of the head of the gangster who raped and killed the character Laura who in Susan's perception is indeed played by herself. In Scene B, it is seen how Susan was looking at her employee's phone where the employee was showing her the nanny cam of her new-born baby. Seeing this, suddenly Susan saw a man popping out in the nanny cam to scare Susan, the man was the gangster in the manuscript she read. The Figure  Based on the findings found by researcher in this research, the principles that was most found within this movie is Closure. It is due to the main character in the movie try to connect missing pieces of the story in the manuscript in order to reduce complication and reduce sense of incompleteness in her head by taking the memory from her past and present life and make relation of it with the manuscript itself.