Catfish (2010): Allowing Image Management to Manage Your Skepticism

In the 2010 film Catfish, the main character Nev routinely dismissed the results he received by the critical listening tool of skepticism, yielding to the constructs of perception and image management as intended by the character Angela. Even with strong evidence presented early to Nev, Angela’s expert use of communication tools manipulated the relationship to suit her narrative.

The earliest instance depicted in the film of Nev’s skepticism was subtle and occurred when he retold recent adventures of Angela’s family he befriended online. Still in the dark the online family was the work of one individual, Nev told a story about the son in the family. During a recent intense snowstorm, the son’s plowing knocked down a power line and disrupted the home’s electricity and telephone service. The incident also caused a (presumably) expensive repair to the car towing the plow and the removal of a 150-year old maple tree damaged from the fallen power line pole. This was told to Nev over the phone by Angela and he later alluded to the filmmakers about her cool composure. Nev mentioned that Angela “must be pretty awesome,” but then paused and noticeably contemplated. Perhaps he was considering all the occurrences Angela just endured didn’t match the affable and chummy disposition she conveyed over the phone. This was an early display of his skepticism. Nev remarked her and her family were “awesome”…“at least from Facebook.” Angela’s use of image and image management was already working. (We later learn there was no son in the family capable of operating a plow. Though the other events aren’t verified later in the film, the viewer can surmise they were also fictitious. They were told as fact by Angela, a person who later lied about her cancer diagnosis). With these fabrications, she shaped her image as the family matriarch, maintaining strength through trying times. “The Facebook family, that’s what we’ll call them,” Nev says, acknowledging he only knows them through the filter of Facebook and the results of Angela’s image management.

The film continued with Nev Facebook-friending additional members of Angela’s family. A cool brother who likes the edgy rock band The Ramones. An easy going dad who was supportive of twenty-something Nev’s budding relationship with the family’s eight-year-old daughter/artist prodigy. But Nev’s individual relationships with the family grow most with Angela’s oldest daughter, Megan, a photogenic animal-loving artist/musician/dancer. During Nev’s first phone call with the age-appropriate for dating Megan, Nev makes a comment that her voice isn’t what he expected. In truth, it was Angela, manipulating her voice to deceive Nev who quickly dismissed his skepticism.

It’s Megan’s musicianship that led to the next incident of Nev ignoring his skepticism. Megan allows Nev to request a song she will instantly record and present to him. He selected the sexually-charged “Tennessee Stud” and asked to have this instant version recorded with a flare of “real sexy.” Twenty minutes later, a polished “Tennessee Stud” mp3 beamed over to Nev’s inbox who fixated on her fulfillment of his flare request. Dismissing the aspect of the professional-sounding recording being so speedily produced, he commented, “She’s so hot.” Nev’s dismissal of Angela’s deceit was based on his romantic interest in Megan, or aka Megan/(Angela).

In a scene involving Nev and the filmmakers, they discover a song Megan/(Angela) had presented as wholly her own but was actually an obscure cover. Nev acknowledged her high credibility as her version was “from deep expression and feeling,” and dismissed her claimed ownership as the song’s composer. Angela’s use of image management in the character Megan/(Angela) may have influenced Nev invoking the “social validation principle.” Considering his intensifying romantic interest with Megan/(Angela), there’s no reason for Nev to shatter the image of her as a growing artist when her family sure thinks so. Soon after, Nev discovered a blatant act of deception from Megan/(Angela). Another song she had sent him and presented as her own was in fact completely composed and recorded by another musician. Angela’s image management with Megan/(Angela) as a prolific songwriter was beginning to fail. Still, Nev dismissed the skepticism even with the filmmakers’ own concerns. Nev just sees the sharing of this song as perhaps an “immediacy behavior.” He also attributed the halo effect to Megan/(Angela) as he had become more outward with his views on her physical appearance. Angela’s image management had succeeded as Nev confides (well, on camera) to the filmmakers his intentions were to start an intimate relationship with the (not known to him) fictitious Megan/(Angela). As the film continued, it changed its theme and focus from general online relationships to uncovering the truth of Angela’s intensively labored image management via Facebook.

These few examples illustrate Nev’s dismissal of skepticism toward Angela’s ambitious image management. The relationship was complicated as both Nev and Angela participated in this, and as they each had an unspoken end goal. Angela knew the power of image management had immediate rewards, relieving what was soon to be revealed as a stressful life caring for severely handicapped step children. Image management also had the potential to reward her financially as Nev had connections to the art world and expressed admiration with the art produced by the youngest daughter. Though Nev’s skepticism and doubts increased after my last example above, he himself had a new goal. His continued online and eventual “in real life” communications with the family were to become content for this documentary, and which would be the catalyst to his own successful film career.