Answer:
Yes
The bowl is thin and made of a metal like aluminum that conducts electricity well. When the automatic rice cooker is turned on, the heater starts heating the bowl, which conducts the heat into the water and the rice. Once it begins boiling, the heat is carried off in the steam that rises from the bowl.
Rice Cookers usually warm their contents by transferring heat from the heating plate to the cooking pan, and the type of metal used can improve that transfer. Some metals -- copper and aluminum for example -- are highly conductive. In other words, they transfer their heat easily.
