In the 1957 version of the film 12 Angry Men the real story is the one behind the story of jurors deliberating the fate of a teenage accused of murdering his father It is a story about cognitive biases and how they affect people's ability to reason rationally evaluate facts objectively and at times even causing people's memories of events to get blurred A cognitive bias is a subconscious inherent flaw in one's thinking or reasoning that prevents them from accurately perceiving reality Cognitive biases are usually created when someone is unwilling or unable to let go of their beliefs or preferences resulting in skewed truths and cloudy thinking Some of the kinds of cognitive biases include belief or confirmation bias false consensus effect bandwagon effect in group bias obedience to authority and overconfidence effect In the following essay I will introduce and define these cognitive biases and provide examples from 12 Angry Men illustrating these biases in action A belief or confirmation bias occurs when someone is swayed by an argument or premise primarily because they are very much in favor of its conclusion For example Juror 3 has had a very painful and disappointing fallout with his son after seeing him walk away from a fight Vowing to make a man out of his son his last interaction with him was two years ago when his son punched him and walked out
