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Prejudice in social psychology
Prejudice in social psychology
Societal origins of prejudice
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Prejudice in social psychology
Prejudice in social psychology
Societal origins of prejudice
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Block 4 Prejudice is a big problem in today’s juries, as it can put an innocent person in jail, or worse. Twelve angry men by Reginald Rose is a great example of what can happen if jurors' minds are poisoned by prejudice and bias. The book is centered around Juror 8 who has the big job of showing a prejudiced jury that a kid who was alleged to have committed premeditated homicide was innocent. Reginald Rose uses the 3rd juror to develop the ideas of prejudice on juries by showing how personal experience can help feed into prejudice heavily, and how.
As the play went on, Juror Eight started proving how the boy was innocent. In the end Juror Eight changed all the other juror’s minds, except for Juror Three’s. Juror Three ended up changing his vote, not because they changed his mind but because he gave into peer pressure. He still had his prejudice influenced decision, he only gave in because he didn't want it to be a hung jury. Another example, from the same play, is Juror Eight.
In his play Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose brings us back in time to 1957, to a jury room of a New York Court of Law where one man, Juror #8, confronts the rest of the jury to look at a homicide case without prejudice, and ultimately convinces Juror #2, a very soft-spoken man who at first had little say in the deliberation. Throughout the play, many of the jurors give convincing arguments that make one think about whether the boy is “guilty” or “not guilty.” Ultimately, one is convinced by ethos, logos, and pathos. We can see ethos, logos, and pathos having an effect on Juror #2 as he begins as a humble man and changes into someone brave at the end. Although all three modes play a part in convincing Juror #2, pathos was the most influential
"Don 't judge a book by its cover" is a famous saying that some of us heard it before and some of us experienced it. 12 jurors were experiencing this quote when they gathered to decide whether a young boy is guilty by killing his father or not. Juror 2 stated, "Well, anyway, I think he was guilty" (6). Juror 2 represent most of us, as sometimes we judge from what we hear and not from what we see. The 12 jurors are from various backgrounds and each one has a distinctive personality.
While all of the other men have changed their vote to a not guilty verdict, the third jurors remains with his original belief. Even in the very end of the play, he acts hostile against the others trying to change his mind, in saying “Do you think I’m an idiot or something?” (Rose 72). One juror that seems almost impervious to argumentative fallacies and peer pressure is Juror 8. Juror almost displays the ideal juror, and the rest tend to mimic the flaws of the system.
On another level, the play is about America and its makeup as a melting pot of different cultures, ideas, beliefs, and temperaments. This jury runs the gamut from a German immigrant watchmaker, 11th Juror, to a presumably wealthy broker, 4th Juror, to a male nurse at a Harlem hospital, who grew up in the slums, 5th Juror. These men represent the incredible richness of diversity in America and the various challenges that it presents. This clash
This is important because his emotions could cloud his judgment on this case and cause him to possibly send an innocent man to death. Similar to prejudiced people in real life, Juror 10 didn't immediately state his beliefs outright, but instead, did so in a small subtle comment that could be easily missed by others. Near the end of the story, Juror 10 drops all pretenses of hiding his prejudices when he goes on a tirade about people from the slum, saying that they "don't know what the truth is", that "human don't mean as much to them as it does to us", and that "There's not a one of 'em who's any good" (Rose 59). This shows just how deep Juror 10's distrust of this group of people goes. He is unable to even fathom that a single person who
The justice system has always been the heart of America. But like this country, it has many faults. Prejudice has played a major role in the shaping of this system. In the 1930’s the way a courtroom was set up was completely different from how it looks to day. In the book To Kill A MockingBird, Harper Lee shows just how different it is.
This process continues throughout the course of the movie, and each juror’s biases is slowly revealed. Earlier through the movie, it is already justifiable to label juror 10 as a bigoted racist as he reveals strong racist tendencies against the defendant, stating his only reason for voting guilty is the boy’s ethnicity and background. . Another interesting aspect of this 1957 film is the “reverse prejudice” portrayed by juror
The justice system that relies on twelve individuals reaching a life-or-death decision has many complications and dangers. The play Twelve Angry Men, by Reiginald Rose, illustrates the dangers of a justice system that relies on twelve people reaching a life-or-death decision because people are biased, they think of a jury system as an inconvenience, and many people aren’t as intelligent as others. The first reason why Reiginald illustrates dangers is because people can be biased or they can stereotype the defendant. The Jurors in Twelve Angry Men relate to this because a few of them were biased and several of them stereotyped the defendant for being from the slums. The defendant in this play was a 19 year old kid from the slums.
There are several stereotypes that are associated with women in Law Enforcement There are many reasons I chose the stereotype that is associated with the profession I chose to pursue once I receive my Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice. Being a woman that wants to work in Law enforcement has affected me in different ways. It has also had an impact on my life. It acts as a barrier when thinking critically and it is important to think critically when it comes to different stereotypes so that you won’t get off track.
The flaws of the American justice system exposed by the play Twelve Angry Men, written by Reginald Rose, include Racism, Bias and the different definitions of Justice. Of the 12 Jurors in the play many of them have a bias towards the defendant, a hispanic boy. Rose expresses this to us through their words, language and facial expressions (younger son). Racism is another major theme throughout the plot especially expressed by major verbal conversations but accurate details, such as only white men deciding the fate of a hispanic teenager. Lastly, between the jurors there are different interpretations of justice.
Juror Ten announces his intentions very early in the play. He speaks loudly and forcefully from the beginning, clearly showing his racism and prejudice towards the boy. Juror 10 quickly votes guilty and asserts that the defendant cannot be believed because “they’re born liars”. Additionally, he claims that the “kids who crawl outa those places are real trash.”
People act upon what they think. Within “12 Angry Men”, all of the jurors have an opinion but some voice their more than others. One juror in particular, Juror Ten, voices his opinion about the boy in question. Repeatedly throughout the play, Juror Ten makes many thoughtless and hurtful comments about a certain kind of people. It is clear that Juror Ten’s uncompromising belief that the accused is guilty is because of his dislike for the boy’s race.
Stereotyping is a perception error frequently made in everyday life. In the film, there is a scene in which juror 10 states that the boy is guilty, solely based on the fact that he is from the slums (“slum kid”) and makes some implications of his race. The juror blames the child and his race instead of his environment and other external factors (fundamental attribution error). Importantly, all the jurors seemed to be from different backgrounds which is sure to have shaped their reality/view on the matter at hand, i.e. whether the boy murdered his father or not. This influence of background rang true in the case of juror number five.