  Now is a good time to consider which features of the utility function carry meaningful information. Comparisons are informative: if \(U(o_1) \gt U(o_2)\) (for a person), then \(o_1\) is better than (or preferred to) \(o_2\). But it is not only comparisons that are informative—the utility function must carry other information, if expected utility theory is to give meaningful results.