preview

12 Angry Men Psychology

Decent Essays

The movie “12 Angry Men” demonstrates multiple psychological constructs. This tumultuous story features a group of twelve jurors that are deciding the fate of an 18 year-old boy who is accused of murdering his father. Initially the jury voted 11 to 1 in favor of guilty. Upon one juror voting not guilty and urging the other 11 to talk it out, he gradually brings up facts that cause the other 11 to change their vote to not guilty. Upon examination, the film highlights social psychology theories in areas of conformity and attitude change.

Conformity
Conformity due to social influence is portrayed all through the movie. The first vote was taken publicly, and was susceptible to normative social influence, an element of social influence, or conformity due to a fear of appearing deviant. As the jurors voted the hesitation to vote guilty was apparent on most faces. According to Informational Social Influence, individuals conform because they believe that others interpretations of a situation that they themselves are not sure of is more valid and thus correct. As the discussion continues through the afternoon more information about the case is …show more content…

According to social psychologists Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, there are two routes to persuasion: peripheral and central. Central persuasion is the process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the power of argument. The main instance of central persuasion in “12 Angry Men” is with Henry Fonda and Lee Cobb. Fonda stipulates his ideas of the boys innocence through well thought out imperial reasoning and data eventually swaying the other jurors to vote not guilty. Central route persuasion describes Fonda’s approach. Cobb utilizes his powerful personality to create a counter argument based in fact to persuade the jurors in the opposite direction of

Get Access