Social Interdependency Theory In 12 Angry Men

The Social Interdependency Theory, would most certainly apply to the 12 Angry Men film in a variety of different ways. During the beginning of the film, it seemed that a multiple jurors participated in group-think during the decision making. Some jurors even stated that 5 minutes would be long enough and there was no more need for deliberation even though there was clearly much room for reasonable doubt. Negative Social Interdependence Theory began to come into play when the other jurors who were satisfied with making a final decision based on group-think started to have open disagreement with Davis. Many of the jurors who originally opposed Davis did so while using distributive negotiation. Many of these jurors had busy lives that required for them to devote much time to. One juror planned to attend a Yankees game at 8:00 pm that evening. The temperature …show more content…
An example of this is when the European juror asked one of the American jurors if he understood what the term reasonable doubt means, the American was offended and suggested a negative stereotype against the European juror. However, the European juror seemed to have been simply trying to manifest clarity.
In regards to competitive, distributive, tactics, the 12 Angry Men did not seem to include this aspect of the theory. Certainly, as time passed throughout the film, the moods of some of the jurors became more hostile. The jurors naturally became angrier since their demands were not met (not reaching an agreement on a guilty verdict and not reaching an agreement on becoming a hung jury).
Power differences also did not seem to be a factor in this film. The judge is individual who would have the most power in this scenario. Since the judge is not in the room during deliberations, it would not be possible for the judge to exercise his power to ensure that any reasonable doubt is