12 Angry Men
If the jury decides the boy is guilty, the boy will be sent to the electric chair. All the jury members were sure about who is guilty except one. The juror, who is called “Number 8” was not sure because deciding on someone`s life is not an easy choice. The movie emphasizes the conflict between the jury.
I think the movie 12 Angry Men is related to Minority Influence. Minority Influence is a change that starts with an individual`s influence then affects the group or society which the individual be part of. Minority Influence has three determinants: consistency, self-confidence, and the defections from the majority. The first one is consistency. If the minority wants to influence the majority, the ideas that they serve must be consistent. The second one is self-confidence. The perceived trust of the minority to make decisions independently of the community may lead other individuals to give more attention to their views. The third one is the defections from the majority. If a minority questions the truth of the majority`s ideas, the majority can speak about their doubts more freely, and even they can change their opinions, and the majority can become the minority.
12 Angry Men emphasizes the conflict between the jury that tries to decide on an 18-years-old boy`s trial. The boy was accused of killing his dad. Eleven jurors were sure that the boy is guilty. One of the jurors, who is called “Number 8” used his vote for the boy is not guilty. After the first voting, conflict had started. Number 8 symbolizes the minority in this movie. He said he has reasonable doubts, so he cannot vote for guilty. All of the jurors have started telling him that he is wasting their time. Number 8 did not give up, and he insisted on his idea. Later, jurors have started to agree with Number 8. The first determinant was consistency. All of the doubts that Number 8 has been consistent as he said all the time, “I have reasonable doubts.” The second determinant was self-confidence. His attitude toward 11 people in the room affected one of the jurors, Number 9. After the arguing, they organized another voting and Number 9 changed his vote to the boy is not guilty. He indicated that he admired Number 8`s stability, and he changed his vote because he wanted to support Number 8. The last determinant was the defections from the majority. When Number 8 started questioning the juror`s motive to vote one by one, he started to catch their weak supports for their own ideas. They started to see each other`s reasons as insufficient. After all, arguments and many votes, the jury decided the boy is not guilty. At the end of the day, Number 8 who started the conflict as a minority, became the leader of the majority.
The movie is related to real-life because, if we start to examine people's motives to decide on any subject, we can clearly see every individual's real and different reasoning process as shown in the movie. The reasoning process gives us clues about how we can change people's thoughts and become the majority.
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