Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline Volume 11, 2008 Editor: Eli Cohen A Psychologically Plausible Goal-Based Utility Function T. Grandon Gill University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA ggill@coba.usf.edu Abstract Utility is a concept that is central to economics, finance, and decision theory. In the informing sciences, it also plays a central role: that of explaining the client’s motivation to be informed. Un- fortunately, existing economic models of utility are plagued by many anomalies when applied to individual clients and also fail to incorporate many important features that are relevant to inform- ing contexts, such as the desire for mastery and learning. The present paper draws upon goal set- ting theory and cognitive psychology to propose an alternative view of utility that is better adapted to informing situations. It further proposes that in a given task setting, an individual’s utility function will evolve with experience, from satisfying loose generic goals into a highly compiled task progress monitoring function. During the course of this evolution, the client will pass through a phase where utility is heavily determined by progress towards specific task goals. The implications of this more psychologically plausible model of utility for informing systems are discussed. Keywords: Utility, goal setting, motivation, learning, informing systems, preferences, altruism, mastery, attention, framing, anchoring. Introduction The notion of a utility function, that is to say a function that captures human preferences and the- reby explains human choices, is widely used in many business-related fields. In economics, it plays a foundational role in the mathematical derivation of general equilibrium theory and often plays a role in macroeconomic policy models. In the decision sciences, it is central to rational decision models involving risk and time. In management and finance, it serves as an important underpinning to a wide range of models, such as those employed in agency theory and prospect theory. Within the informing sciences, the concept of utility is no less important. In Cohen’s (1999) sender-channel-client model, the concept of utility is central to understanding why a sender chooses to inform and why a client chooses to be informed. In this context, utility can manifest itself in a number of ways. From an economic perspective, the value of be- ing informed can be described as the marginal value of information for the task associated with the informing sys- tem. The greater the value of the infor- mation, the greater the contribution in- forming makes to the client’s utility. Informing relationships may also exist, however, in contexts where marginal values cannot be calculated, or where Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is per- missible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission.