Saavedra, Angelie G.

BUSMAN 101 – C

July 03, 2020

Lesson Learned from the 12 Angry Men

Decision making is a big part of our lives. Perhaps, it is the first thing we do as soon as
we wake up, and we make countless decision every day. Decision is a choice made between
alternative courses of action in a situation of uncertainty. Some are easy but some are either
stressful or complex or both. Decision is pervasive that is why how we make or choose it is
really important.

The movie entitled 12 Angry Men taught and helped me understand a lot of things. First
is that making a big decision situation is really difficult since you have to consider so many
things. Having a different characteristics and making a unanimous decision are the main
problems or highlights of the movie. These 12 men are members of the jury and are supposed to
give a verdict whether the boy in the murder trial is guilty or not on the basis of reasonable
doubt, forcing them to question their morals and values. Accordingly, these men do not know
each other personally, and I think it is because for them to be able to come up to a decision that is
not influenced by their relationship. In the movie, I saw how one jury who voted “not guilty” in
the beginning was able to influence the other 11 jury to consider the existence of a reasonable
doubt. This juror was juror number 8 and he is an architect. He was the kind of person who is
very detail conscious, open to possibilities, and non-aggressive compared to some, who are very
short tempered, loud-mouthed and disrespectful. Among the 11 men, there are also who are
focused on facts, wise, observant, opinionated, and very principled. But what makes juror 8 stand
out from the rest is that he admit when he is uncertain about what he think and he does not
contest every single rebuttal that is given to him and most of all he never states his disagreement
with somebody. Considering that the 12 men have different characteristics, it can be seen how
difficult it is to decide when so many people with different attitudes and different opinions come
together. In real life this problem is the same.

As the movie goes on, it essentially came into one question and that is “what is the value
of a human life?” We all know that nobody is entitled to take away anybody’s life. However, in
the movie, the life of the boy depends on the unanimous verdict of the 12 men in the jury.
What’s worse is that some of them are eager to have a decision within a short period of time
because of their own personal appointment as if it is a petty thing. Juror number 8, who voted not
guilty during the first round of voting sends us a message that every human life has a value and
deserves a fair shake. Although there are strong evidences given in the court that the boy is
guilty, he still considered the possibility that these are wrong and supposed that the boy is not
guilty at all. The movie taught me that everything is not what it appears to be. Being aware of
this is the first step to better understanding. And as for me sometimes the reason why most of the
time we make a mistake in making a decision and regretting it later is because we only
considered what is presented to us instead of looking at the little things deeper and considering
other possibilities more.

In the movie I can also relate the topic of this course about attitudes and personality
among all the 12 men. As I have observed, their attitude comes from different sources. Their
votes are based on their beliefs, feelings and behavioural intentions. With this we can accurately
say that each of the jurors has their own biases which are formed from their past experiences or
maybe from their careers. In addition, we have also discussed the 5 personal factor
characteristics which can also be observed in the movie. Some of them are able to stay calm,
flexible, and curious or in other words open-minded while others are the other way around.
Another thing that this movie taught me is that sometimes we tend not to understand or hate
someone because of his or her actions. I have learned this through the character of juror number
3. In the movie, he played as the antagonist and among the 12 men he is the most annoying one
for me. He is too close-minded, very aggressive, and disrespectful, and he doesn’t even admit his
mistakes. For me, these kinds of people are the ones who make everything complicated.
However, by the end of the movie, I have realized that sometimes knowing where other people
are coming from will help us understand why they are acting this way. Sometimes a little bit of
understanding is what we need to make everything else better.

Moreover, it is in human nature that we want to be listened to, to be appreciated or even

to be rewarded and we do not want others to belittle or ignore us or our ideas. At some point of
our lives, we have made decisions that are in contrary to others, not because we want to annoy or
piss them off but because we have different perspective or belief from them. However, the movie
taught me that whenever I have a different perspective than the rest I should always have an open
mind to at least listen or understand their ideas or thought about the issue and never disrespects it
while I state mine. Way back in high school, our class joined a contest where during the practice
time the class got into a misunderstanding about the choreography and other stuff and the idea of
not joining the said contest was brought up and majority of the class were already discourage
including our leaders. I understood the point of the leaders with different ideas so I came in
between and tried to make them understand what they were missing. And so the issue was fixed
and the two different ideas were applied smoothly. At the end of the day, listening is the
beginning of understanding.

Another lesson that I learned from the movie is to never allow people with more power to
manipulate my mind or decision and that we should never consider something to be right if we
consider it for the wrong reason. I think this is very important especially nowadays where the
influence of social media is so strong and people in the position or with power use this platform
to convince us to believe into something. As human beings, it is our right to have or make our
decisions independently without being manipulated and our responsibility to choose or believe
something with the right reason not because other people do the same thing or because of the
fear of being judged by them.

I have also realized that we do not really have the power to change someone’s mind
because they are the only one who can. If we try to change it, they will defend it as is. But juror
number 8 showed/proved that if we can manage to express uncertainty, concede to reasonable
rebuttals, state as many areas of agreement and let the other person arrive at their own conclusion
on their own terms it is only then possible to change one’s mind. Convincing somebody that your
mind can change is necessary for allowing their mind to change.

Above all these, the 12 men are unique – having different attitude, values, personality,
and perception which is true in the real world and which I believe is the main point of the movie.
These four individual characteristics are important because they affect or influence our actions
and relationship with others. Everything we do is shaped by our prejudices and past experiences.
However, may we not limit our actions and decisions through what we think is right and efficient
thing to do. Listening to other people’s suggestions, thoughts or advice is okay. At the end of the
day, we only have to make sure that our minds or decisions are not manipulated by those with
more power.