4 March -  Nancy Dess Occidental Psychology
Feelings on the Tip of the Tongue
Taste, Emotion, and the Organization of Behavior

    An intimate association between taste and affect must have begun very early in mammalian evolution. Substances in the mouth are poised to enter the body. Thus, early taste systems were under tremendous pressure to evaluate the substances as good (nutritious) or bad (toxic) and to provoke, respectively, swallowing or ejection. From this humble, high-stakes beginning, taste was elaborated – neurally, psychologically, culturally – such that it now serves as a reliable marker for affect and a potent organizer of behavior. This proposition will be illustrated with examples from selectively bred rats, human psychophysics, language, and global politics.