"less preference than" is a grammatically correct and usable expression in written English.
You can use it when you want to compare the degree or level of preference between two or more things. For example, "Many people have less preference for cake than for ice cream."
Moreover, in other DCE studies, practising nurses have less preference for housing attributes than nursing students [ 27, 43].
Older people are indeed known to have less preference for shared decision making than younger patients[ 10, 16].
Again the rats exposed in utero to EtOH displayed less side preference than the chow fed and liquid diet pairfed rats.
This study also showed that people from rural backgrounds had less strong preferences than others for most job characteristics, and that women were less sensitive to pecuniary incentives and more concerned with facility upgrading than men were.
By contrast, they showed less of a preference than did their Western counterparts for BBN to both parents together and for gradual communication.
They also showed less of a preference than did their Western counterparts for having a person present for support and for close bodily contact with their babies during BBN [ 6, 7].
Because the essential family script is nuclear among the urban population and extended among Bedouins, it was not surprising that the urban Saudi mothers showed less of a preference than did the Bedouin mothers for having a known person for support during BBN.
Her mission, as she understood it, was to inspire the failing heart with courage; and when she selected mine I felt less flattered by her preference than astonished by her penetration.
To claim that the popularity of these Web sites, TV shows and films proves that they're what women truly want is rather like saying that supermarket shoppers want those hard, pink, tasteless tomatoes; it's less a question of preference than of choice (or lack of choice) and availability.
But the transfer remains in the balance and will depend less on Wiggins's preference than on lawyers' deliberations, as well as Sky's willingness to pay Garmin compensation that would dwarf his current annual salary, believed to be around €400,000 (£360,000).
