In economic theory, utility depends on past, present and future outcomes. The experiment described in this paper … suggests that utility also depends on people's attitudes, and that it can easily be manipulated through these attitudes. The … results imply, first, that purely outcome-based models of individual utility may be incomplete. Second, that reference …

The concept of utility is often used in ambiguous ways in economics, from having substantive psychological connotations … conceive of utility. It turns out that empirical evidence does not favor a view of multidimensional utility. This does not … eliminate the possibility to make a normative argument supporting a multidimensional notion of utility. …