12 Angry Men Assignment (Behavioural Finance)

Rohan Harsh – 2012173

The movie revolves around deciding whether the allegation on the boy in question for the murder of

his father was guilty or not. Twelve Angry Men is based on engrossing, in depth examination of a

diverse group of twelve jurors mostly belonging to the middle class society who are seated together to

analyze after hearing the 'facts' in a murder trial case in which a clear verdict is assumed right from

the beginning. They assemble in a jury room for their discussion and try to come up with a just

decision for the defendant whose life is in the balance. The film is an example of social build up,

conflicts arising at different strata’s of society, diverse group opinion, and cooperation.

People's bias and predetermined thoughts can affect their opinion on different situations and different

people which is clearly evident throughout the movie. Jurors’ personal prejudices and past views

came out and the viewers could observe how this has influenced and shaped what they think. The

three most influential jurors are 3, 10 and 11. Juror 8 brings in a new dimension to the case.

Foreman: He is a high-school football coach. At times he got irritated with the conduct of business.

Juror 2: He is a Bank clerk. He is ambivalent in nature and cannot hold on his views signifying he has

no critical decision making ability. He switches to the opinion of the person to whom he has spoken.

Juror 3: He is head of messenger service. He is an opinionated person, has strong feelings and is

highly obstinate and shows signs of being sadist. He is intolerant of opinions other than his own, and

tries to force his opinions and views upon others. He is most prejudiced of all the jurors; his mental

set up due to his son’s behaviour can also be seen when at last he says, “I am going to kill you”.

Usage of words like rotten kid describes his biased thinking as he condemns all teenagers and feels

resentment against them. [Bias from mere association: automatically connecting a stimulus with pain

or pleasure; including liking or disliking something associated with something bad or good. It

includes seeing situations as identical because they seem similar. Self serving bias: Overly positive

view of our abilities and future. It includes over-optimism. Self-deception and denial – distortion of

reality to reduce pain or increase pleasure. It includes wishful thinking. Bias from consistency

tendency – Being consistent with your prior commitments and ideas even when acting against our

best interest or in the face of disconfirming evidence.] He is a negatively biased person.

Juror 4: He is a stockbroker. He is concerned about the facts in this case and he is annoyed with the

behaviour of the others. His standing is a bit above his peers.

Juror 5: He is a mechanic and does not feels easy while taking his view or standing his position but

he takes the case seriously and tries to be rational.

Juror 6: He is a painter. He comes to his decision slowly but with reasons. He cannot create positive

opinions but has given a god time to analyze others opinion.

Juror 7: He is a salesman. He is short on temper and quickly forms an opinion without basing it with

reasons.

Juror 8: He is an architect. He is quite a rational person who looks to the case from different angles,

avoids and predetermined opinion to overlook his judgement. He is calm and composed as in he turns

the discussion into more rationalistic one with patience and judging each point to its merit.

Juror 9: He is a retired person. He views things as per logic and is open to change his views if they do

not confirm with reality.

Juror 10: He is a garage owner. He is also short tempered, his view on human life is very negative and

he holds his opinion very high irrespective of others as his words,”You got to believe me this story of

losing the knife”. He is suffering from cold and shows annoyance towards anyone who contradicts his

opinion. He has a bias towards slum dwellers as we can notice from his words like, “They do not need

a reason to kill someone they just get drunk and do it”. He is intolerant and racist. [Self-deception and

denial – distortion of reality to reduce pain or increase pleasure. Includes wishful thinking. ]

Juror 11: He is a watchmaker. He has migrated from Europe and feels that injustice should not be

done. He is excited on this democratic process and says,” This is a remarkable thing that we are

notified by mail to come down to this place and decide on the guilt or innocence of a man we have not

known before “. [Bias from mere association]

Juror 12: He is an advertiser. He keeps playing on his scratchpad and appears to have very little

understanding of people. At one moment he also tries to depict something on basis of graphs and

numbers linking to nothing serious.