The Neuroscience of Preferences

The expression of preference reflects the influence of two broad modes of judgment—intuition and deliberation (Kahneman and Frederick 2002). The intuitive mode includes emotional reactions (e.g. Loewenstein 1996), but it also includes heuristic process which are largely perceptual or cognitive in nature. Intuitive processes occur early in a judgment process; they are fast and largely automatic. This is in contrast with deliberative processes which tend to occur later in a judgement process, are slower, and are more controlled. Intuitive and deliberative processes interact with each other, although they are often in conflict, and there is some evidence that they are anatomically separated in the brain.