How we may have been misled into believing in the interpersonal comparability of utility (Q792196)

Interpersonal comparison of utility is generally discredited as a normative assumption, but it is nevertheless observable. The authors investigate the degree to which the concept of ordinal intercomparability of utilities leads to interpersonal agreement. They conclude that, while possible, the agreement is not unique and that while there are dynamic processes that lead to ordinal intercomparability, they depend heavily on social and accidental matters.