While many studies have found that perceived usefulness—an extrinsic motivator—is the strongest determinant of using utilitarian systems, others have found that it is less important than perceived enjoyment—an intrinsic motivator—in predicting hedonic system usage. In light of these interesting but mixed findings, our research applies the motivation theory to investigate the effects of extrinsi...

Two priority-setting frameworks to decide how to allocate limited resources among available treatments were developed, the first one based on cost-effectiveness and the second one based on cost-effectiveness and a social welfare function (SWF). The framework based on cost effectiveness gives a higher priority to therapies with lower average or incremental cost-effectiveness ratios. The framewor...

The cognitive and emotional neuropsychological processes underlying moral judgments are the focus of groundbreaking research in understanding moral cognition. The aim of this study is to adapt to Spanish the moral dilemmas battery of Moore. This battery presents a set of moral dilemmas from a utilitarian choice (assuming an emotionally aversive behaviour for a higher benefit) and a non-utilitar...

Recent research has relied on trolley-type sacrificial moral dilemmas to study utilitarian versus nonutilitarian modes of moral decision-making. This research has generated important insights into people's attitudes toward instrumental harm-that is, the sacrifice of an individual to save a greater number. But this approach also has serious limitations. Most notably, it ignores the positive, alt...

Because it is harder to justify hedonic purchases than utilitarian purchases, it is proposed that promotions will have a stronger positive effect on the purchase likelihood of hedonic than utilitarian products. This and related propositions are tested in multiple studies using a variety of product categories and promotions. The results demonstrate that promotions are more effective in driving p...

This study investigated hypothetical moral choices in adults with high-functioning autism and the role of empathy and alexithymia in such choices. We used a highly emotionally salient moral dilemma task to investigate autistics' hypothetical moral evaluations about personally carrying out harmful utilitarian behaviours aimed at maximizing welfare. Results showed that they exhibited a normal pat...

Today most e-government and e-procurement research and discussion are done in a quite utilitarian and technical way. This follows the worldwide positivist and utilitarian approach to research that neglects the social, organizational, cultural, and political aspects of social life. Therefore, most research initiatives are based on a market-driven and utilitarian approach in which technology is t...

Previous research has shown an association between emotions, particularly social emotions, and moral judgments. Some studies suggested an association between blunted emotion and the utilitarian moral judgments observed in patients with prefrontal lesions. In order to investigate how prefrontal brain damage affects moral judgment, we asked a sample of 29 TBI patients (12 females and 17 males) an...

Introduction Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is associated with abnormal emotion recognition and moral processing. Methods We assessed emotion detection, discrimination, matching, selection, and categorization as well as judgments of nonmoral, moral impersonal, moral personal low- and high-conflict scenarios. Results bvFTD patients gave more utilitarian responses on low-c...

BACKGROUND Recent studies of moral reasoning in patients with alcohol use disorders have indicated a "utilitarian" bias, whereby patients are more likely to endorse emotionally aversive actions in favor of aggregate welfare (e.g., throwing a dying person into the sea to keep a lifeboat of survivors afloat). Here, we investigate the underlying psychological and neuropsychological processes. ME...