I couldn't understand how those jurors could not grasp how all the inconsistencies, the comments [View all]

[Maraya1969]

that seemed to come out of a Stand Your Ground textbook and the physical impossibility of Treyvon Martin seeing Zimmerman's gun while he was up at his armpits with his legs straddling Zimmerman and then reach for that gun only to have Zimmerman be able to get his gun which is under him, while laying on his back and having someone sitting on him. And that is just one example of the very high number of implausibilities the Zimmerman said.

Then I remembered all the people I'd read about on the net and a few in real life who insisted that Z would not get a fair trial because the jurors would be afraid of those scary black people rioting. And how Fox news was so supportive of Z and all the other conservative websites and then I remembered this study.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/01/04/0956797611421206.abstract

Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

And this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intelligence-study-links-prejudice_n_1237796.html

Why might less intelligent people be drawn to conservative ideologies? Because such ideologies feature "structure and order" that make it easier to comprehend a complicated world, Dodson said. "Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice," he added.
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"Reality is complicated and messy," he told The Huffington Post in an email. "Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies."
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So 6 conservative racist women on a jury pool might sound like a statistical anomaly but remember that racist and conservative is exactly what the defense wanted and they had professional jury pickers helping them find them. Perhaps the prosecution lost the trial right after the last juror was seated.

Basically these women could not put it together in their heads what most of us put together. They went for the simple, "too many robberies and they were all done by black men so of course a person would be suspicious of a black man walking around in the neighborhood." (although I can't find information to support that statement that all the robberies were committed by black men..........but racists and conservatives would not think to look for supportive information. The "fact" fits right into their simpleton thinking.)

And so does their inability to think abstractly and be able to "see" how Zimmerman's explanation of what happened could not possibly be true. Nor would they see all the Stand Your Ground lines he kept repeating and realize how contrived it was.

If they were all conservatives, (and remember the defense was purposely looking for them and I suspect that the prosecution did not realize the implications of those types of jurors.) then 2 little centimeters cuts on his head was the result of his head being smashed against the concrete maybe 25 times.

Anyway I hope you get my point.