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Pleasurable beliefs and hedonic belief-based utility

  • Stephen Gadsby
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Abstract

Humans are consistently biased towards pleasurable beliefs, for example, that we are better than average regarding desirable traits and that our futures will be brighter than statistically plausible. According to an influential theory within psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural economics, we are biased towards these (and other) pleasurable beliefs because they maximise hedonic belief-utility. I challenge this theory and suggest alternative explanations for pleasurable beliefs and the psychological processes that produce them. According to the view I present, such beliefs stem from processes that have little to do with maximising belief-utility.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{gadsby2026pleasurable,
  title = {{Pleasurable beliefs and hedonic belief-based utility}},
  author = {Stephen Gadsby},
  howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.31234/osf.io/c2f6p_v1},
  url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/c2f6p_v1/},
  note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Pleasurable beliefs and hedonic belief-based utility
AU  - Stephen Gadsby
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/01
PB  - PsyArXiv
DO  - 10.31234/osf.io/c2f6p_v1
UR  - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/c2f6p_v1/
AB  - Humans are consistently biased towards pleasurable beliefs, for example, that we are better than average regarding desirable traits and that our futures will be brighter than statistically plausible. According to an influential theory within psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural economics, we are biased towards these (and other) pleasurable beliefs because they maximise hedonic belief-utility. I challenge this theory and suggest alternative explanations for pleasurable beliefs and the psychological processes that produce them. According to the view I present, such beliefs stem from processes that have little to do with maximising belief-utility.
ER  -