Definition of "hedonics" []

• The branch of psychology that studies pleasant and unpleasant sensations and states of mind. (noun)
• Philosophy The branch of ethics that deals with the relation of pleasure to duty. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They ` ve used things called hedonics (ph), various other statistical measures."
• "Some of these CPI ingredients -- product substitution weightings, "hedonics" (price reductions for added product quality or satisfaction), and use of owner's equivalent rent (instead of home ownership costs) -- have a comic aspect suitable to mockery by Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart."
• "If Von Mises objected to simple CPI indexes as trying to measure something that is impossible to measure, the problem is compounded with nontransparent statistic alchemy such as hedonics or substitution coefficients."