 Serious engagement with preferences began in the 20th century. In the social sciences, the preference concept became important for explanatory and predictive purposes with Irving Fisher’s (1892) and Vilfredo Pareto’s (1909) methodological criticisms of hedonistic cardinal utility. Previously, economists largely agreed that decisions were motivated by the individual’s quest for pleasure, and that the difference in quantity of pleasure derived from different alternatives was an important influence on decisions. In that framework, the notion of preference, to the extent that it was used at all, was merely derived from hedonistic utility: \(X\) is preferred to \(Y\) iff \(X\) yields more utility than \(Y\). Pareto argued that because an accurate measurement procedure for cardinal hedonic utility was not available, social scientists should constrain themselves to merely ordinal comparisons (Bruni and Guala 2001). This argument turned preference into a fundamental notion of the social sciences, replacing (hedonic) utility. 