This paper discusses the history and interrelations of three central ideas in preference theory: the independence condition in decision under risk, the sure-thing principle in decision under uncertainty, and conjoint independence for multiattribute decisions and consumer theory. Independence was...

Utility theory is interested in people's preferences or values and with assumptions about a person's preferences that enable them to be represented in numerically useful ways. The first two sections of this paper say more about what utility is, why people are interested in it, and how it is...

Additive utility formulations for risky and nonrisky multiple-factor decision situations are reviewed. Twenty-four methods of estimating additive utilities are listed and classified. References to the theory and technique of each method are given along with a short discussion of each. A number...

This paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the following proposition, in which \preceq and \preceq _i for i - 1,..., n are weak orders on a finite set X. There are real-valued functions f₁, f₂,..., f_n on X such that, for all x and y in X and i in {1,...,n}x\preceq _i y if and only...

Information overload usually refers to a situation in which a decision-maker's performance is harmed by too much input information. Experiments have shown that better decisions can occur when selected information is withheld from the decision-maker. This paper suggests that the notion of...

This paper explores several important notions relevant to modern utility theory. Restricting the discussion to the consideration of bivariate utility functions, the paper defines and examines the interrelationships between (1) independence in the utility sense, (2) trade-off or indifference...

The linear plus exponential utility function has received increasing attention of late as a particularly attractive family for evaluating additive gambles for wealth. In addition to its ability to reflect increasing appreciation for money, risk aversion, and decreasing risk aversion, it is...

Management science and decision science have grown exponentially since midcentury. Two closely-related fields central to this growth are multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT). This paper comments on the history of MCDM and MAUT and discusses topics we...

This paper is the first of a two-paper study of fairness issues for decisions that affect the benefits received and the risks encountered by a population. The study examines fairness for individuals and for homogeneous groups within the population. It considers fairness both for population...

This paper seeks to get behind specific contextual referents of risky situations to consider characteristics of risk that apply to many situations. It is guided by previous theoretical and empirical research in perceived risk, and focuses on the joint effects on risk of loss probability and the...