The movie 12 Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet and released in 1957, involves psychological concepts which can be seen in our social environments. The movie centers upon 12 jurors and their gradually rising discussions about a trial for a 18 year old boy who has supposedly killed his father. The jurors have to reach a consensus, all 12 of them must vote guilty or not guilty. If one of their votes is different from another, they should discuss and reach the ultimate verdict for the first degree murder case. They make a vote, 11 out of 12 jurors vote guilty without actually contemplating. Juror 8, who does not vote guilty for the boy, tries to show the rest of the group that he may not be guilty, that they should think it through before acting upon falsely. Throughout this decision making process, some concepts of social psychology are exemplified through jurors’ behaviors and conversations.
The first social psychology concept that can be observed clearly is conformity. When the jurors make a vote, some of the jurors wait for other members to raise their hands, and then they vote guilty since the majority of the group vote guilty. They conform because they want to be correct and accepted, and in this situation, both informative and normative influence is apparent. Only juror 8 votes not guilty. That makes the other members angry because most of the jurors want to leave as quickly as possible without contemplating deeply, and they are in favor of the idea that the boy is guilty so they expect everyone to vote guilty. That means, the social norm of the group is voting guilty so that they can leave the room early. Juror 8 does not conform to the group’s social norm. In the group members, the example of attributions and the Fundamental Attribution Error can be seen since most of the members constantly make personal attributions and underestimate the influence of the situation on the boy. Only juror 8 makes situational attributions such as the death of the boy’s mother, his one year spent in an orphanage and his father’s jail term.
Moreover, the movie shows examples of in-group bias, stereotypes and prejudice towards the children who grow up in slums. For example, juror 10 refers to the people who grow up in slums as “one of them”, he also shows out-group derogation by despising the boy’s ability to speak English while he himself cannot speak good English. He says, “..you know how these people lie, they do not need any reason to kill someone..”. These are examples of his prejudices and stereotypical ideas. Juror 4 also stereotypes the people in the slums, he refers to them as “potential menaces to society”. Since juror 5 is from the slums, he does not take these biased opinions well. An example of Contact Hypothesis can also be seen as their prejudice, especially juror 10’s, decreases because they work together, and they have equal status with juror 5. The other example of prejudice towards the boy comes from juror 3, the last person who votes not guilty. His decision about the trial is biased because he has a bad relationship with his own son, and that makes him prejudiced towards the boy. Another example of attitude is implicit prejudice, later turns into explicit prejudice, towards old people in the movie. Juror 9 is an old man and the second person who changes his vote to not guilty. Most of the time, when he tries to talk or explain something, juror 10 and 7 disregard his opinions by judging him from his old age. For example, juror 7 leaves the room while juror 9 is speaking, and when he shows empathy towards the old man who gives testimony, juror 10 judges him by saying “..how can you make up a thing like that, what do you know about it?” This attitude is an example of prejudice towards old people. As the movie continues, group members who vote guilty start to think deeply on the trial, and they realize the biases and stereotypes they have towards other people. Since the beginning of the movie, an example of groupthink can be seen as the jurors first make a vote for the boy, and the hesitant jurors also vote guilty, avoiding the other possibility. Moreover, minority influence shows itself as juror 8 makes reasonable points and changes the other jurors’ attitudes and opinions, encouraging them to think of other possibilities. At the end, all jurors discuss and see the important points of the trial, and then they reach a consensus.
In conclusion, 12 Angry Men shows the important concepts social psychology concerns about. The characterization of each juror as well as the situation of making a court decision provides an opportunity to demonstrate social psychology concepts by exemplifying conformity, groupthink, prejudice, attributions, minority influence, bias, stereotypes on the characters; therefore, it becomes easier to understand people’s thoughts, their motives and why they might be acting the way they act.
