Abstract

Hedonic goods are goods that people buy to obtain emotional experiences, such as joy or excitement, while utilitarian goods are bought to meet functional or instrumental needs. Although research in neuroscience suggests that the values of hedonic and utilitarian goods are similarly represented, it remains largely unknown how these values are mapped during purchasing decisions or task-irrelevant judgments. It has been suggested that people rely more on hedonic (vs. utilitarian) factors when making task-irrelevant judgments, and that this is amplified by trait-reward seeking. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can directly measure the mental processes involved in explicit or task-irrelevant value judgments. Using fMRI, we found that the explicit value of hedonic and utilitarian goods was commonly processed in the ventral striatum. In contrast, no significant results were obtained in common neural processing of task-irrelevant hedonic and utilitarian value. Additionally, we did not find any evidence that trait-reward seeking modulates task-irrelevant hedonic (vs. utilitarian) value processing. Our findings show that the value of both hedonic and utilitarian goods is commonly represented in the ventral striatum, and indicate that the value construct underlying consumer purchases is unidimensional.

Highlights

  • Hedonic goods are goods that people buy to obtain emotional experiences, such as joy or excitement, while utilitarian goods are bought to meet functional or instrumental needs

  • Recent neuroscience findings suggest that the values of hedonic and utilitarian goods are represented in the same brain regions[1], it remains unknown how these values are mapped during task-irrelevant judgments

  • Hedonic attitude scores are higher for hedonic goods than utilitarian goods (mean: 4.526 ± 0.653 for hedonic goods, mean: 2.392 ± 0.727 for utilitarian goods, t(26) = 12.387, p < 0.001), and utilitarian attitude scores are higher for utilitarian goods than hedonic goods (mean: 4.588 ± 0.765 for utilitarian, mean: 3.268 ± 0.743 for hedonic, t(26) = 11.596, p < 0.001)

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Summary

Introduction

Hedonic goods are goods that people buy to obtain emotional experiences, such as joy or excitement, while utilitarian goods are bought to meet functional or instrumental needs. Research in neuroscience suggests that the values of hedonic and utilitarian goods are represented, it remains largely unknown how these values are mapped during purchasing decisions or task-irrelevant judgments. Our findings show that the value of both hedonic and utilitarian goods is commonly represented in the ventral striatum, and indicate that the value construct underlying consumer purchases is unidimensional Both affective and cognitive (functional and instrumental need-related) factors can play a role in purchasing decisions. Recent neuroscience findings suggest that the values of hedonic and utilitarian goods are represented in the same brain regions[1], it remains unknown how these values are mapped during task-irrelevant judgments (when explicit economic evaluations are not required). FMRI provides better spatial resolution than many other neuroscientific methods (e.g., EEG, fNIRS, or MEG), and it can reliably measure activities in deep brain structures such as value-related mesolimbic regions (e.g., the ventral striatum)

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