Undecided Voters: dumb, unconfident, or smarter than the rest of us?

This week I read an interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times that reminded me of our class. The editorial was called, "Your Brain's Secret Ballot" and discusses the reasons some voters remain undecided until right before election day. Do undecided voter's brains work differently than those who are decided? Decision making in the brain is a two part process of gathering evidence and committing to a choice. Inherent to this process is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Should you make a quick decision and get it over with or if you wait longer, will you in the end make a wiser and more accurate decision? This inner brain turmoil may suggest that undecided voters require a higher degree of confidence before they commit. The article stated that, "recent research has shown that when undecided voters looked at images of candidates, their brains' emotional centers were often activated."

So what is one to make of all of this? Are undecided voters a result of low confidence and self esteem, are their brains slower, do they need more time to make decisions, all of the above...

I think that it might matter from case to case, but either way I think that it is interesting to think about how one's brain works when making an important decision, and in this case choosing the next president of the United States.