Question

In 250 words, describe the Patterns of persuasion and conformity from 12 Angry Men (1957)

Answer 1

The film deals with the juri’s decision on a murder case. In the film a group of jurors must decide the guilt or innocence of an accused murderer. Initially they decide that the accused is guilty and later after much discussion and persuasion, they change their decision.

In the jury room, exemplification of informational and normative social influence is visible. Informational social influence is when individuals conform because they believe that other’s interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more salient, or valid, than their own. In normative social influence the cause of individual conformity is due to the possibility of appearing deviant.

In ‘Twelve Angry Men’, informational social influence is aggravated by an ambiguous situation and also because of importance of being correct, time constraints, and presence of those perceived as experts. Time constraint is clearly visible and the ensuing pressure to complete the task at hand is manifested in this type of conformity. Conformity is also increased by the immediacy element of social impact theory in the movie. Social impact theory calls for the situational and personal factors that produce conformity. Milgram and his associates talk about social impact theory and majority influence and have defined these as a function of strength of source, immediacy of sources, group size, awareness of norms, compatriots in dissention, age, gender and culture.

Persuasion is also an integral part of the movie. The central route to persuasion is the process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the power of argument. The peripheral route of persuasion is characterized by superficial cues surrounding the argument rather than the argument’s factual validity.

Therefore, it may be seen that conformity and persuasion are integral and central to this movie.