Matt Yglesias

26 Responses to “Decisions Among the Undecided”

1. John DE Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm

   Okay, how can anyone get a NY Times article or even a published journal article out of a study of 33 undecided. 33. Pathetic.
   You could get a better sample out of comments to this blog.

2. JMG Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 3:08 pm

   Dear Matt: This research falls into the “heard about the Lindbergh baby?” file of “no kidding.”
   “Undecided” voters are people who hate ALL decisions. You surely have been to restaurants, especially Asian restautants, with the following person in a large group.
   Last to order by a mile. Spends huge amounts of time discussing every freakin’ thing on the menu with the waiter. Orders same blankity-blank thing they’ve ordered every time you’ve been with them.
   That’s your undecided voter. It’s a cry for attention. Watch the focus groups of “undecided” voters after the debates and you’ll see I’m right.

3. Ryan S Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm

   This is why self-described libertarians are often the most susceptible to right-wing talking points. Their assumption of their own independence is an effective filter for the self-satisfied.

4. Mike Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 4:13 pm

   What’s more, because those people have an “undecided” self-conception, they’re in some ways more vulnerable to their own biases than are people who are prepared to admit that they’ve made up their minds.

   This makes no sense. Undecided people may be more easily convinced one way or the other than decided people, but that’s not surprising: they’re undecided! The decided people have already internalized their biases and made a choice. In fact, the decided people might have been MUCH more susceptible to their biases: that’s why they were able to make a choice more quickly!

5. roberdfeinman Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 4:33 pm

   “Undecided” people when polled really know what they favor they just lie to pollsters about it. One of the reasons is something called “social desirability” bias. If you think your position will be frowned on by the pollster or society you will be less willing to admit to it.

   Just yesterday I saw two stories about “undecided” voters who were obviously for McCain. One claimed that Obama didn’t have an economic plan the other that he was a Muslim and can’t be trusted. It’s not that they haven’t been paying attention, its that they have already made up their minds and are masking this with these excuses. They have no reason to dig out the facts since they have already decided.

   It’s a sorry state of affairs when one realizes that the $1 billion being spent this election cycle is all aimed at the 3-7% of “undecided” voters. The only thing that reaches them is emotion, not issues, not facts.

6. Vivisfugue Says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 8:01 pm

   Man, November 4th cannot get here fast enough (and not just because it’s my birthday!). In a parliamentary system, we would have long since dumped Bush in a vote of no confidence, and spent two or three years bitching and snarking about Prime Minister Clinton. Instead, we’ve had eighteen months of a lame duck administration (what did they want a second term so badly for?) with no accomplishments besides pissing away more of our natural resources to cronies and our moral authority to terrorists and dictators. Whatever happens, I will go to sleep early morning November 5th, happy, drunk, deflated and promise by all that is holy never to care so much again.

7. Kolosov Says:
   December 14th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

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8. AbnofeCecenub Says:
   December 16th, 2008 at 9:01 am

   Спасибо за информацию.

9. HelfVoreose Says:
   December 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

   А есть, какая нибудь альтернатива?

10. GYNCCICHKIG Says:
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