Coalition formation provides a versatile framework for analyzing cooperative behavior in multi-agent systems. In particular, hedonic coalition formation has gained considerable attention in the literature. An interesting class of hedonic games recently introduced by Aziz et al. [3] are fractional hedonic games. In these games, the utility an agent assigns to a coalition is his average valuation...

Multiple signals for reward-hedonic impact, motivation, and learned associative prediction-are funneled through brain mesocorticolimbic circuits involving the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum. Here, we show how the hedonic "liking" and motivation "wanting" signals for a sweet reward are distinctly modulated and tracked in this circuit separately from signals for Pavlovian predictions (lea...

Mu-opioid stimulation of cubic millimeter hedonic hotspots in either the nucleus accumbens shell (NAc) or the ventral pallidum (VP) amplifies hedonic "liking" reactions to sweetness and appetitive "wanting" for food reward. How do these two NAc-VP hotspots interact? To probe their interaction and limbic circuit properties, we assessed whether opioid activation of one hotspot recruited the other...

Using two waves of panel data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we examine the relationship between volunteer work and three dimensions of well-being: hedonic (e.g., positive mood), eudemonic (e.g., purpose in life), and social (e.g., feeling of belonging to the community). We test for the effects of volunteering measured as a binary and a continuous variable. Re...

The Sweet Taste Test (STT) is a standardized measure designed to index the ability to detect differences in sweet tastes (sweet taste sensitivity) and hedonic responses to sweet tastes (sweet taste liking). Profiles of response on the STT suggest enhanced hedonic responses to sweet tastes in psychiatric disorders characterized by dysfunctional reward processing systems, including binge-eating d...

I develop a distinction between two types of psychological hedonism. Inferential hedonism (or "I-hedonism") holds that each person only has ultimate desires regarding his or her own hedonic states (pleasure and pain). Reinforcement hedonism (or "R-hedonism") holds that each person's ultimate desires, whatever their contents are, are differentially reinforced in that person's cognitive system on...

Hedonic "liking" for sensory pleasures is an important aspect of reward, and excessive 'liking' of particular rewards might contribute to excessive consumption and to disorders such as obesity. The present review aims to summarize recent advances in the identification of brain substrates for food 'liking' with a focus on opioid hot spots in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum. Drug micro...

This research examines whether the hedonic 1 or utilitarian nature of a system serves as a boundary condition for understanding an individual’s interaction with information technology (IT). To do so, we reviewed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) literature to identify studies incorporating intrinsic motivators (i.e. indicators of hedonic responses to IT). We then employed meta-analytic tech...

This paper proposes a subjective well-being approach to test the equilibrium condition implicit in hedonic pricing. Contrary to the conclusions of previous studies, we show that both approaches are not complementary but, rather, they are alternative ways of computing implicit prices of environmental amenities. They are equivalent when the equilibrium condition holds but, in the absence of such ...

In this chapter we present the case that growth is a central concern in older adults’ selfidentity, facilitating dispositional well-being and resilience in older adulthood. Contrary to the view that “growth is for the young and loss is for the old,” research on personal goals and memories demonstrates that older adults are at least as concerned with gain and growth as they are with loss. As for...