AN EMPIRICAL-COMPARISON OF UTILITY-ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS

This paper reports on an experimental investigation of the utility fun ctions elicited by four different utility elicitation computer program s. We were able to confirm that decision making subjects will to a deg ree follow the recommendation of a utility elicitation program in cont ravention to the subject's intuitive judgments of preference. Further, we found systematic differences in this regard among the four program s. Programs that confront subjects with their inconsistencies and forc e a reworking of the subjects' expressed preferences appear to produce utility functions with greater acceptance by decision makers. Similar ly, programs that employ a direct manipulation style of interface also appear to result in greater acceptance by subjects of the utility fun ctions elicited.