Decision Sheet:12 Angry Men

Athena Chowdhury
Section-A
PGP13047

Situation

 The first voting process

 12 jurors are supposed to vote on whether the 18-year-old convict is guilty or not
guilty
 The vote will decide the fate of the boy. If guilty, he will be sentenced to death
 All 12 must come to a unanimous decision and a majority vote will not be counted
 11 jurors vote guilty without a second thought, while one juror votes not guilty
 This leads to a heated discussion

Actors

 Juror #1 – The foreman. He is serious, makes informed decisions, and likes being in
charge
 Juror #2 – Shy and easily changes his mind based on the last person he spoke to.
He has a comparatively weaker personality
 Juror #3 – Strong, dominating, stubborn, and strict, forces others to agree with him
and believes he is always right
 Juror #4 – A well-dressed wealthy man who cares a lot about facts. He looks down
on the other jurors and doesn’t like their behavior
 Juror #5 – Shy and responsible. He is naïve and afraid to speak up
 Juror #6 – A nice, honest man who makes careful decisions. He accepts opinions
that he likes and it’s difficult to create positive opinions for him
 Juror #7 – Opinionated, short-tempered, and loud. He behaves like a bully and gives
quick opinions before even trying to get into a deeper analysis
 Juror #8 – He is calm and has a lot of opinions, but also considers others’ opinions.
He believes in justice, seeks the truth, and is ready to fight to get what is right
 Juror #9 – Nice old man; lives his life strong; does not hide his age; does not hold
back on his decisions; wishes he was more courageous when younger; defeated by
life; waiting to die
 Juror #10 – Angry, racist, and miserable. He seems to hate everyone but himself
 Juror #11 – Compassionate and caring. He is ashamed due to his refugee status and
wants justice because he knows how it feels to be treated unfairly
 Juror #12 – Egocentric, snobbish, and smart. He doesn’t understand most people but
tries to be a decent person
Process

 Narrow framing: Instead of recognizing that there might be several options, they tried
to frame their decision as a choice between two options
 Confirmation bias: We make gut decisions subconsciously, then look for evidence
that confirms our initial view. Sometimes even objective facts can be seen as biased
 Short-term emotion: Emotions can easily cloud someone’s thought process and bring
great bias as well
 Overconfidence: They were too confident in the information they had close to hand,
and failed to look deeper
 Lack of Patience and Empathy: This led to many people just voting to get out of the
situation quickly

Learning

 They were not concerned about the importance of the discussion and the decision
that they were making. The life of a poor slum boy did not matter to most
 It was a matter of formality to most of them. They were just doing it for the sake of
their work
 They cared more about the time they were spending instead of the life that could be
unfairly taken away because of their decision
 They were just trying to impose their thoughts on others without any idea of the
situation
 Raw facts without context can be misused

Suggested action

 They should analyze the situation first

 Critical thinking and a thorough discussion before coming to a conclusion
 Instead of blindly trusting statements, they should do an in-depth investigation of the
case and cross-check the validity
 They should understand the consequences of their actions and take their job more
seriously

Possible Outcome

 They will realize how much their decisions affect others and take them carefully
 They would be able to recognize and get past false statements
 They will be able to see the story from different perspectives and shine the light on
unknown truths