Pleasure- and pain-based decision making: Neural mechanisms and consequences for choice

Pain and pleasure have been at the heart of decision making ever since Bentham referred to them as “sovereign masters” that govern everything we do.

Yet little is known about how the physical and affective components of pain and pleasure influence decision making, and what the mechanism behind this influence is.

The proposed project will use a combination of economic theory and neuroscience methods to address this question.The project involves four main studies, investigating effects of both incidental (physical) and integral (non-physical) pain and pleasure on decision making.

Furthermore, the project investigates consequences of pain and pleasure for decision making in a variety of domains, including risk taking, intertemporal choice (i.e., choices between rewards that are delivered at different points in time), and prosocial choice.

Finally, the project investigates both overt behavior and neural processes that contribute to behavior (using neuroimaging, fMRI), thereby addressing a core question within the field of neuroeconomics: What is the neural basis of economic behavior?

Ultimately, understanding the processes that drive people´s decisions can lead to improved decision making, enhanced well-being, and saved lives.The project will be made possible by a visit to the SPAN Lab at Stanford University. SPAN Lab has extensive expertise in the valuation models and neuroscience methods involved in the proposed project.