¶ … Angry Men The jury in Twelve Angry Men is not diverse in terms of ethnicity and gender, because it consists of twelve white males. The only diversity evident is with Juror 5, who has a social class-consciousness that is different from the other men due to his having grown up poor. This little "in" to the theme of prejudice is what helps Juror 8 eventually persuade the others that their hasty "guilty" verdict is based on prejudices rather than on the facts of the case. Moreover,, Juror 11 is also first generation immigrant, and this comes up later in as the jury deliberates.

Twelve Angry Men is squarely about personal bias. With the possible exception of Juror 8 (who might have personal biases of his own that did not surface in the trial), many men, especially Juror 10 but others too, have biases against people who live in slums and mainly Mexicans who live in slums. Juror 3 is biased personally against the defendant because he has preconceived notions about the father-son relationship. Several jurors have cognitive biases that prevent them from seeing the facts of the case, such as when Juror 4 fixates on the boy not remembering his...

Tuckman's theory of group formation posits a forming, storming, norming, and performing stage -- with an optional fifth of adjourning, which is exactly the term used to dissolve a jury. In Twelve Angry Men, the adjourning stage is clearly defined, as is the forming stage. The men are placed together in the room during the forming stage. They are getting to know each other, and all but Juror 8 are eagerly avoiding conflict. Juror 8 therefore emerges as a leader. The bulk of Twelve Angry Men takes place during the storming stage, when Juror 8 leads the discussions. This stage dissolves into the norming stage, when Jurors 12 and 1 ultimately tip the count in strong favor of the not guilty verdict. Finally, a shift takes place in the performing stage when not just Juror 8 is leading the discussion.
4. When Juror 10 rants about the slums and the scums dwelling within it, the other members of the jury ostracize him by turning away from him physically. He had crossed the line of acceptable stereotyping, and the others were able to see that their own prejudices were manifest in him to an extreme. Another example of ostracism occurs…