Title: Consistency of the decision-maker in pair-wise comparisons

Authors: Jozsef Temesi

Addresses: Department of Operations Research, Corvinus University Budapest, Fovam ter 8, Budapest H-1093, Hungary

Abstract: Most authors assume that the natural behaviour of the decision-maker is being inconsistent. This paper investigates the main sources of inconsistency and analyses methods for reducing or eliminating inconsistency. Decision support systems can contain interactive modules for that purpose. In a system with consistency control, there are three stages. First, consistency should be checked: a consistency measure is needed. Secondly, approval or rejection has to be decided: a threshold value of inconsistency measure is needed. Finally, if inconsistency is |high|, corrections have to be made: an inconsistency reducing method is needed. This paper reviews the difficulties in all stages. An entirely different approach is to elaborate a decision support system in order to force the decision-maker to give consistent values in each step of answering pair-wise comparison questions. An interactive questioning procedure resulting in consistent (sub) matrices has been demonstrated.

Keywords: pair-wise comparisons; consistency control; decision support systems; DSS; interactive methods; decision making; inconsistency reduction; consistent values; interactive questioning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2006.009148

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2006 Vol.7 No.2/3, pp.267 - 274

Published online: 06 Mar 2006 *

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