A movie recommended by my brother for one of his course. A movie made in 1957. Put 12 men together and you can really see the effect. It is called the alpha theory. I was introduced this theory this year by a friend. Intrigued, I asked him more about it. He told me if you have too many men in a discussion, the theory will materialize. There will be some who will try to dominate the conversation.
A further search leads me to this phrase: “If you have a group of wolves, one will emerge as the leader of the pack.”
I have seen such effect in a discussion before. It tends be quite scary especially when you never seen someone argue before, suddenly turn the discussion into a pretty intensive argument. I asked is it mainly a male thing, my friend said it is due to male ego. Hmm…
In this movie, I saw this theory materialize again. When people gets sensitive, when people gets stressed, when people gets prejudiced. 12 jury have to come up with a unanimous decision on whether the teenager is guilty of killing his dad or not. It was initially an 11-1 vote where only one person voted not guilty. And he did it initially to try to initiate a discussion. Because he felt that there is something amidst and he hopes that all are truly convinced the teenager committed the murder and should be put to death immediately. Slowly, one by one was convinced.
Towards the end, the last one breaks down too. I felt sad for him because he has a painful relationship with his son.
It's always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth.
1 comments:
Looks interesting to me =)
Merry Xmas to you!
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