Guilty In Twelve Angry Men

The movie Twelve Angry Men is about twelve male jurors deliberating on a trial of a young man on trial for the murder of his father. The beginning of deliberations it appeared, all the men wanted to vote guilty immediately, so they could go about what they had planned for that evening. Nevertheless, on the first vote, eleven of the men voted guilty while, one voted not guilty. That being said, the majority did not influence this one man, and he went against the majority. Majority influence is “social pressure exerted by the larger portion of a group, the majority, directed toward the individual members and smaller fractions within the group, the minority” (Forsyth, 2010). Thus, the eleven which voted guilty could not understand why he would vote

Though it was not unique, because one of the jurors had purchased the same knife in the young mans same neighborhood. Because of this, one other juror had changed his vote to not guilty, on the next vote, now it was ten guilty, two not guilty. Through the deliberation process, jurors discussed one by one, why they believed the young man was guilty, or not guilty, of murdering his father. Consequently, each situation discussed turned out to have a reasonable alternative described by other jurors, leaving reasonable doubt. This process is known as; “change-promoting interpersonal processes based on group members selectively encouraging conformity and discouraging or even punishing nonconformity” (Forsyth, 2010) At the end of deliberations and discussing each topic of the case the jury unanimously voted not guilty. Thus, occurring conversion, “change that occurs when group members personally accept the influencer’s position; also, the movement of all members of a group to a single, mutually shared position, as when individuals who initially offer diverse opinions on a subject eventually come to share the same position” (Forsyth,