MOVIE: 12 Angry Men

As the jurors initiate the first vote, which was done publicly, it was obvious that conformity took place. In the words of Wikipedia, “Conformity is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are influenced by what is conceived to be what other people might perceive.” As they took this initial vote you can see how each are looking around to see how the next person is voting so that they can vote with the majority, even though they barely put in time to talk the case through – except Henry Fonda (HF). All except HF only has the concern of getting out of deliberation as soon as possible. HF truly would like to discuss the case in details and to look at it from all possible angles. While he may think the boy may have killed his father, he still believes he deserves a fair and thorough trial, especially since a guilty verdict sentences the defendant to death. Unfortunately, the high level of conformity caused the jurors deliberations to go on longer than it may have if everyone initially gave the vote they wanted with some sort of reasoning behind it whether or not it disagreed with the next man.
The initial nonchalant vote caused some jurors to attempt to influence others in order to convince them of their case. Many of the jurors wrote off the boy based on stereotypes about growing up in the slums and belonging to a minority group. There were also some who were biased towards the evidence presented and only chose to reflect on the evidence that was directly related to their reasons for voting for the boy to be found guilty. These influence tactics were not able to work completely because when it comes to stereotyping and biases everyone will have their own. You can’t easily persuade someone to have the same bias as you as those are instilled in you through the way you were raised and through personal experiences; therefore, those influence tactics weren’t too successful.
However, HF was the only man in there that had reasoning and confidence in his vote that he stuck by and in turn was able to influence the votes of the other jurors. HF’s influence techniques were part assertiveness and whole use of reason. He was only partially using the assertiveness technique because he wasn’t really completely aggressive in making his point; but he was definitely confident and self-assured. HF embodied the use of reason technique in whole because all he wanted to do was appeal to logic and rational thinking. Yes, he may believe that the boy killed his father, but he wanted the jurors to reach that decision in a logical way.
During the initial vote HF suggests they talk about the case before jumping to conclusions after the rest had voted guilty without even putting any thought in their decision. HF’s influence on the first changed vote of the old man (Juror #9) was relevant as it started to make others reevaluate their vote and start to actually think about their decision. The old man (Juror #9) says, “He gambled for support and I gave it to him. I want to hear more,” was his reason for changing his vote. This allowed for time that the jurors would have to listen to arguments of the case and possibly change their view on it. This change of vote was also the most important because HF said that if no one else changed their vote, he would change his to guilty. The way HF spoke about his reasons for his not guilty vote was facts and possibilities which also prompted him to full out reenact scenes from the case. When you see things happen, you tend to have a different way of explaining than if you just hear about it.
When HF was asked why he voted this way he said, “It’s not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.” He had also said, “I don’t know” when asked why he voted not guilty. He was uncertain, and didn’t want to conform to the majority; and discussion was the only way he saw fit to come out with true votes. Not just votes of haste. Regardless of what the final vote would have been HF did what he felt was right and he also may have saved a boy’s life. This is why the influence HF made was more effective than the others.