what is the difference between a preference and an opinion?

Either word can be used in describing a personal stance, choice, or
point of view. "Opinion" carries an implication that powers of reason,
critical judgment, and logic are in use, while "preference" is often
more intellectually primitive, or emotionally-based. Opinions can be
proved wrong, based upon faulty logic or erroneous premises, while
preferences, which are  more "primal," are difficult to dispute. The
old saying "There's no accounting for taste" applies to preferences,
such as "Pizza is good," but is less applicable to opinions, such as
"Abortion is evil."

Here is an interesting discussion of the difference between an opinion
and a preference:

"An opinion is a judgment based on facts or the conclusion to an
explicit or implied argument, whereas a preference is a mere statement
of likes or desires.

Opinion: 'Because Saddam is building nuclear weapons, I think America
should promote regime change in Iraq.'

Preference: 'I like cheese.'

Preferences are never right or wrong, they merely are. Opinions,
however, can be valid or invalid, depending on the underlying
reasoning process and the accuracy of supporting facts."

Greg's Journal Archives
http://greggers_gq.tripod.com/jarch/sept2002.html

Similarly:

"Judgement is defined as a 'critical opinion based on an assessment of
merit' or against a standard of comparison whereas preference is an
opinion which specifically relates to a personal 'liking' based on
experience."

The Macaulay Institute: Issues of preference and judgement
http://www.mluri.sari.ac.uk/ccw/task-two/preference.html

Here's a thoughtful excerpt from a series of newsgroup posts about jazz musicians:

"The problem is, people state simple preferences as if they *were*
opinions.They say, 'Chuck Mangione ruined jazz,' (an opinion) when
they mean 'I hate Chuck Mangione' (a preference). Folks don't seem to
understand that opinions carry more weight than preference, because an
opinion--while still not 'fact'--can be backed up by argument. An
opinion is based on criteria (personal as they may be); opinions are
often based on the opinions of others who are more knowledgeable than
oneself, in a chain of educated opinions stretching back years. The
bottom line is, an opinion can be supported rationally... Real,
demonstrable, arguable opinion is not 'just an opinion.' In many
cases, opinion is all we have. And opinions can be argued about in a
constructive way, whereas preferences can't be."

From the rec.music.bluenote newsgroup 
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&safe=off&threadm=37A9AEE6.B7E067C8%40staff.prodigy.com&rnum=3&prev=/groups

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "a preference is" "an opinion is"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22a+preference+is%22+%22an+opinion+is

Google Web Search: "preference * an opinion" OR "opinion * a preference"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22preference+*+an+opinion%22+OR+%22opinion+*+a+preference%22

I hope this helps. If anything is unclear, please request
clarification; I'll gladly offer further assistance before you rate my
answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 18 Jul 2004 10:50 PDT

Here is an article that describes how the terms "preference" and
"opinion" are used in the field of polling:

Steve Kangas' Web Pages
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-poll.html

You Rule! Kidding. My opinion is that you are an outstanding sourse of
knowledge. Thank you

Preference is typically a matter which affects you personally, while
opinion maybe in matters which affect other people but not you IMHO =
in my humble opinion.  Neil

Great research Pink!

Thank you very much for the kind words, the five stars, and the generous tip!

~Pink

You are welcome and "sourse" is spelled "source"..sorry.

Especially useful was the quote regarding mixing the two terms up (we
are all guilty of this). "X,Y,Z ruined Jazz" and what we really mean
to say is "I hate X,Y,Z"

You can argue the first part as it is an opinion, but you can't argue
against a preference. "You are wrong to hate X,Y,Z" is not a rational
arguement right? It is an opinion stated about someone else's
preference. You can try to change the opinions and preference of
others, but I would think it much harder to change the preference.
Wouldn't you? There aren't "preference leaders" to my knowledge, but
plenty of opinion leaders.

Thanks again.