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The Art of Persuasion

By Eric Pratt

English 1010
Eric Pratt
English 1010
Tues, Thurs
09/28/2010
The Art of Persuasion

The film “Twelve Angry Men” is a good resource when analyzing methods of

persuasion. In this film a jury meets together to give the verdict of a murder trial. With the

evidence presented in court there was no reasonable doubt among the jurors, except one, that the

young man on trial killed his father. It was juror number 8, also known as Davis, who was

hesitant at putting someone to death without talking about it. In a room where everyone is on the

defense of proving the other wrong Davis was able to gather his own army out of those that were

not even on his side in defense of the boy whose life was on the line. This film displays perfect

examples of persuasion like admitting that one can be wrong and displaying information in a

timely and organized manner. On the other hand it also displays bad examples of persuasion like

losing one’s temper and not listening to everything one has to say. Despite the good and bad

methods of persuasion used by Davis and his fellow jurors, it still turned out to be the best

strategy of convincing everyone on the jury in this film to his way of thinking.

Throughout the movie Davis demonstrated that he wasn’t sure if he was guilty or not. He

had a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, but was still unsure of his innocence. In the beginning

of the movie he was asked, “So you think he’s innocent?” He responded, “I don’t know.” Again

near the end of the movie after everyone’s convinced he says, “I only know as much as you

know. According to testimony the boy looks guilty. Maybe he is.” In a book by Dale Carnegie

called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” he writes that the best way to win an

argument is to avoid it, however a misunderstanding or disagreement is welcome. He quotes out

of an article in “Bits and Pieces” on how to keep a disagreement form becoming an argument.

He writes, “Welcome the disagreement. Remember the slogan, ‘when two partners always

agree, one of them is not necessary.’ If there is some point you haven’t thought about, be

thankful if it is brought to your attention. Perhaps this disagreement is your opportunity to be

corrected before you make a serious mistake.” Davis showed a perfect example of welcoming

the disagreement of his fellow jurors to avoid an argument. A bad example of persuasion is

shown later in the film by two other jurors. Davis is washing his face when they tell him straight

out that the boy who was tried was guilty. According to Carnegie this does the complete

opposite of what they’re trying to do.

A good strategy, when done right, used is anger. Arthur Schopenhauer, a philosopher,

wrote a book called “The Art of Being Right.” He wrote 38 stratagems on how to persuade

people. One of them was “Make Your Opponent Angry.” He writes, “Anger is a powerful

emotion and much of its power is over the angry person, whose rational self-control is easily lost

as the anger takes control.” Carnegie’s book, quoted earlier, talks about how anger puts you

automatically on the defense to disagree. With the combination of Davis’ patience and the anger

of the rest of the jury Davis was able to use their anger to persuade them to his thinking. There

are several ways to make one angry stated by Schopenhauer which are all demonstrated in the

film. Acting in a superior manner, showing disrespect, insulting the person, insulting others

under their care, ignoring them, breaking social norms, acting in an unfair way, and acting in an

angry way towards them are all actions demonstrated in the film by Davis as well as the other

jurors. These stratagems may not have been purposefully used by the jury, but nonetheless it

helped Davis’ cause. An example of how this worked towards Davis’ way of thinking was near

the end when juror number 3 was upset about wasting time. They started fighting about how
long it took for the old man to get to the door. He said, “How does he know long 15 seconds is?

You can’t just a thing like that… He was an old man. Half the time he was confused. How

could he be positive about anything?” proving himself wrong about the validity of the evidence

displayed in court.

The method that ultimately changed the mind of the rest of the jury was that of relaying

information is a proper manner. Another method or tactic of persuasion discussed by

Schopenhauer is pausing. He states, “The right way you use words is common in persuasion, but

learning how to use pauses creates more impact. For example, pausing after every command or

request makes it more powerful. People are able to comprehend what you're saying with each

pause. Pausing after every important line in your speech has more effect on the audience than

going through the whole thing without stopping.” An example of neglecting this method was

with juror number 10 when the verdict was nine to three in favor of those voting “not guilty.” He

starts going off talking about the young boy and how he was brought up and how they all are

where he’s from. They all end up ignoring him and he ends up sitting in the corner. A good

example of this method is when juror number 9 comes to the conclusion about the primary

witness and her glasses. In communicating his discovery about the glasses he doesn’t go right

out and tell everyone about it. He first asks why juror number 4 was rubbing his nose. After

receiving a confirmation that it was because of the marks made by his glasses he paused and let

the information sink in that glasses made the marks in his nose. Later he states that the woman

who testified in court about seeing the murder had those marks. Throughout explaining that the

witness wore glasses he spoke very clearly and paused before every sentence. After it sunk in

that the witness wore glasses he went to his next conclusion and asked number 4 if it was normal

to wear glasses in bed.

 Davis was able to use, unconsciously, the faults of persuasion of everyone against him to

change their minds. Though the same methods used to persuade people may not work on

everyone and their various backgrounds, there are many methods used in this film to demonstrate

what methods worked on what personality. The combination of good and bad examples of

persuasion by the jury was a perfect combination to demonstrate the best way of convincing

people of many backgrounds and personalities to Davis’ way of thinking.

 Work Cited

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to Win Friends and Influence People. New York: Pocket Books.

Lee, M. (2010, 11 02). Methods of Persuasion - 3 Simple Yet Powerful Tips to Persuade Anyone. Retrieved
11 02, 2010, from ezine articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?Methods-of-Persuasion---3-Simple-
Yet-Powerful-Tips-to-Persuade-Anyone&id=1862357

Straker, D. (2010, 11 02). General persuasion techniques. Retrieved 11 02, 2010, from
changingminds.org: http://changingminds.org/techniques/general/general.htm