FOOD STIMULI AND GENDER

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states and punishment generates negative somatic states. Thus, these somatic states give
signals to inhibit or enable a specific response (Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio, 2000;
Spence, 1995). Evoked emotions have been used to predict food choices, along with food
liking scales (Dalenberg et al., 2014).
It has been suggested that the desirability of each available choice is computed by
neurons, supporting the previously described economic theory. The mechanism through
which the decision is made is as simple as performing the more desirable action. It has been
proposed that neural architecture might compute and portray in a physiological way, as
utility theory proposes (Glimcher, Dorris, & Bayer, 2005). The algorithms through which
these circuits calculate the economic variables for which physiologically expected utilities
are consequent are an area of intense research (Glimcher et al., 2005).
It should be recognized that maximization of utility in economic theory is not
necessarily consciously achieved (Gintis, 2007; Jaynes, 2003). In the past several years,
research has pointed out that many decisions are made without conscious awareness and
even emotions can be unconscious (Bargh, 2002; Berridge & Winkielman, 2003; Bornstein
& Pittman, 1992; Damasio & Sutherland, 1994; Winkielman & Berridge, 2004).
Dhar and Gorlin (2013) propose “that certain choice effects arise mainly from
intuitive processing and require little deliberation, whereas others can be attributed
primarily to deliberate thought and effortful comparisons among options” (Dhar & Gorlin,
2013). This intuitive processing is an unconscious and automatic process that is more prone
to be activated by visual and sensory attributes generating an intuitive preference (Dhar &
Gorlin, 2013).