People who say they're undecided on a hot political topic may already have made up their minds; they just haven't consciously realized it yet. A clever new study that measured unconscious positive and negative associations indicates that most undecided voters have already formed a preference for one position or candidate.
Experts say the findings may help explain why political polls can be so off-base, and why some people make up their minds in the voting booth with little sense of why they pulled the lever yeah or nay, blue or red [The New York Times].
Pollsters and politicians who think that undecided voters can still be swayed either way should take note, says lead researcher Bertram Gawronski. In the study, Gawronski's team interviewed 129 residents of Vicenza, Italy, during the last two months of 2007 about the impending enlargement of a U.S. military base in their community, a polarizing issue ...
