12 Angry Men – Analysis of Communication Barriers

SUBMITTED BY
Kritika Kushwaha (16PT2-08) PT-MBA
Oct-16 Batch

Overview
After a log discussion and multiple rounds of voting, jurors eventually decide on “not guilty”.
In this report we will discuss the communication barriers of all 12 jury members.
Juror 1
He tries to organize the entire discussion and give it a structured approach. He facilitated the entire
proceedings of the discussion be it casting a secret ballot or allowing everyone to voice their opinion.
However he did not provide with any specific inputs to the entire discussion.
Juror 2
From the beginning until the end of the discussion, the juror #2 didn't participate much preferably
listening to others arguments. We can say that the personality of this jury is passive and sometimes
he had no idea from what he argued. For example, when 7th juror showed a knife, situation became
chaotic but he didn't
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In a New York City courthouse a jury commences deliberating the case of an 18-year-old Hispanic
boy from a slum, on trial for allegedly stabbing his father to death. If there is
any reasonable doubt they are to return a verdict of not guilty. If found guilty, the boy will receive a
death sentence.
In a preliminary vote, all jurors vote "guilty" except Juror 8, who argues that the boy deserves some
deliberation. This irritates some of the other jurors, who are impatient for a quick deliberation.

bothered much. One of the reasons why this juror became passive is probably because of he never
be experienced become juror entire of his life.
All these factors are interrelated and relatively affect decision making process because it may
influence to reliable and a quality decision. Therefore, when this juror became over-passive, he
decision making would be affected by whole.
Juror 3
For him it was internal noise and stereotyping that were the major communication barriers. He was
in high negative effect of emotional stage. His anger we find the fact his son, who he feels is a
coward. He also mourned the distance that has grown between him and his son. Scott believes that
his son should respect him the same way he honors his father, and rose with an iron first. He never
questioned that maybe so should see the relationship with his son from another point of view.
Also he keeps mentioning how “kids from slum” are potential criminals.
He is quick to lose his temper, and often infuriated when Juror #8 and other members disagree with
his opinions. He believes that the defendant is absolutely guilty, until the very end of the play. Also,
he took it as a personal fight, assuming that the juror 8 is disagreeing with him only because he
wants him to loose.
Juror 4
The barrier that will affect the 5th jury decision making process is the environment at the jury room
and he has to deal with the other jury's attitude before make a good decision. It is not easy to settle
the case because everyone has a different view and different personality. With so much heated
argument, he
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was having difficulty in concluding. he is very eloquent and looks at the case more coherently than
the other jurors through facts and not bias. He is steadfast in the belief, but he did not try to
persuade others to change their minds forcibly.
Juror 5
He is from the Harlem slums; he connects with the man at trial and is disgusted at the bigotry of
Juror Ten. Initiating Horewood's character was a follower of the group. He voted "guilty" during the
first vote, and then showed reluctance to discuss the case.
Perhaps with the knowledge he had accumulated by living in a slum gives the upper hand
throughout much jury because he can relate to it. Naturally background jury five assists him in
making a wise decision. Experience will make good decision making. But, not all of the experience
can apply in the dependant case. That is the barrier was happening to this character. He has to find
other information and take others view as advantage to make a right decision.
Juror 6
He is a house painter, a respectful person who stands up for different jury members in the movie. At
first he voted for guilty. He showed inconsistency in making decision where finally towards the end
of the movie he switched his verdict to not guilty .It happened after he listened up to some useful
and some reasonable doubt raised by juror 8 and strong facts raised by all non-guilty- related jurors.
The uncertainty avoidance is so high where environmental factors such as peer pressure really
influence in his decision making.
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Juror 7
He is a salesman. He less concerned and less committed in this premeditated homicide case. As a
result he is not able to concentrate. Also the environmental factors kept him distracted throughout,
till he switches on the fan. His participation is merely to say his stands and how his personal
judgments toward the deliberation process. He is mostly concerned of his baseball tickets and
sometimes ignores what is happening in the room. Instead of yelling nonsense and unreliable facts
just to express his stands, he is frequently argued to anyone that tries to give point of view. Now, his
assumption depends on his institution where I believe it's due to a lesser number of 'non-guilty'
voters. In addition, it shows inconsistency (dissonance) and overconfidence bias as part of his
verdict. These attributes has contributed to a very fundamental decision making of him.
Juror 8
He is indeed the main protagonist of the film. At the very first minute and stage of the movie, he is
the only juror who voted not guilty. Each and every word
seriousness to deliberate the case thoughtfully and honestly as proposed by head-judge earlier. For
instance when he says "I just don't find it easy to raise hand and send a boy to prison for life". He is
always being attacked with "dangerous bullets" from those jurors who voted differently, but has
shown an ethical and extraordinary feedback. His emotional intelligence has successfully closed the
barrier of differentiation. Such determination (non-guilty decision) has brought to an issue of re-
deliberation of the case. The only barrier that he could have had would have been internal noise, as
he was seen lost 1-2 times in the movie.
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delivered by him shows how precisely and concisely determined.
He showed his

Juror 9
He is a wise old man who firstly decides that the kid was guilty. But later on when he heard some
logic thoughts and clarification from jury's number 8, his verdict turn into not guilty. Then, he
becomes close friend with jury's number 8. In this movie, the personality that we can see in Jury's
number 9 is he such an openness guy, he displayed kindness personality as the oldest in jury's
meeting; he also has curiosity to further "develop" the case. For example, when he decided to
change his mind into not guilty. His barrier was fear to be failure. Every person have fear, because
sometime people start to rejecting a good idea just because it shows that the result might be 100%
failure, although its only come from their thought, but because of fear to taking the risk, they tend
to avoid the idea that might bring into successful. The reason that they try to reject risk is because
they cannot handle when someone's telling them "I told you so, don't do this, don't do that."
Juror 10
people. He stereotypes people. He keeps talking about how these kids from slums are, about their
upbringing and their values and the fact that they cannot even speak in English. He do not have a
good in imagination, that he cannot imagine and cannot understand easily what the others think, he
tend to think that he is the only one who are right, he cannot except his mistake and tend to stick
with his answers. Other than that, he also score low in agreeableness when always insulting others
and disrespect the elders. He tends to show that he not interested with others people problem and
also with a filthy mouth he talk recklessly about everything. It's hard to find the solution when a
person cannot
5
He was
loudmouth, narrow-minded bigot, extremely rude and often interrupted

listen and accept others opinion and always think that he the only one who is right. It leads to tight
arguments within them. For example in this movie, we can most of them feels dissatisfy to jury's 10-
in terms of his overall attributes.
Irrelevant idea- this is also one of the factors that create the barriers into decision making. Some
people might fail to generate a good idea at the certain and specific time. They not even helping
when they try to produce the idea that we know is irrational, but because they want to perceive as
idea provider, they tend to raise argument-able ideas which is just make decision making process
complicated.
Juror 11
He works as watch maker most of the time is doing an observant in this movie; He is an immigrant
based on his essence, possibly from Europe country. He believe and hopes that America can give a
justice and he want to see how it done. In addition he also introverts person because most of the
time in the meeting, he just being quiet. He is not an integrity person, which he cannot decide where
he stands with, weather with guilty or not guilty side; this is the answer for his value. Most of the
time he did the observation, but lastly he also
he was holding himself from expressing.
Juror 12
He is among the juror that portrays no-interested, passion about the case at the beginning. He is
busy about his own personal matter rather than further participating in the discussion. He is
marketing agency and sometimes demonstrates his arrogant in this movie. His personality would be
narcissisms
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try to give his opinion and give a question for everyone to think.
Barrier for him,

where he liked to make people looking at him not for the quality of the job. He was busy doodling
and playing tic tac toe.
He was distracted from the case. His attitude was not good and like selfish because just think about
him but not think about the case that was really heavy to make decision. The mood and atmosphere
in the room affects the decision making from him-summer time. It contributes to no-quality
decision. His judgment is based from what he heard from the other jurors not and try to figure out to
find other alternatives. Sometimes, he always busy with his career rather than the case.
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