Preference Relations and MCDM

Multicriteria decision aid is above all a human activity in which value judgements of involved actors play a crucial role. Therefore, “how to represent such judgements?” is a key question in MCDM. This chapter is devoted to this subject. Depending on the particular paradigm adopted for preference modelling, different questioning procedures can be conceived which lead to different preference structures. We present a few questioning procedures related to three basic paradigms, together with some preference structures that are useful for MCDM. First, the classical preference-indifference structure is discussed, followed by the introduction of the ideas of “incomparability” and “hesitation”. Finally, we present some complementary questioning procedures particularly relevant for cardinal modelling of value judgements.

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