Disentangling motivational and experiential aspects of “utility” – A neuroeconomics perspective

Although decision makers are often reported to have difficulties in making comparisons between multidimensional decision outcomes, economic theory assumes a unidimensional utility measure. This paper reviews evidence from behavioral and brain sciences to assess whether, and for what reasons, this assumption may be warranted. It is claimed that the decision makers’ difficulties can be explained once the motivational aspects of utility (“wanting”) are disentangled from the experiential ones (“liking”) and the features of the different brain processes involved are recognized.

► Reappraises dimensionality problem in utility measurement. ► Discusses how brain processes reward and aggregates utility spontaneously. ► Makes connection to motivational (wanting) versus experiential (liking) aspects of utility. ► Explains faulty predictions of “liking” aspects by difficulties in anticipating aggregation.