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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ?

Still lots of undecided voters out there, with less than a week to go before election day. But many of these undecideds may already have made their choice. Even though they themselves won’t learn what it is till they actually pull the lever on November 4th.

Hundreds of studies find that people’s deeply ingrained implicit¹ beliefs can contradict what they say they believe, even what they think they believe. And a recent Italian study found that implicit beliefs strongly predicted voting behavior.

Harvard researcher Mahzarin Banaji runs Project Implicit, which gauges² people’s implicit beliefs. One part of the project looks at Obama versus³ McCain. The study does not use a representative sample. Anybody can take part via a Web site, so study subjects are self-selected. But the findings are still interesting. Self-described independents who take the test actually lean toward Obama. And the test shows that many undecideds who say they’re inclined toward Obama are implicitly⁴ more sympathetic to McCain.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky .