A Characteristic Optimism Factor in Fuzzy Decision-Making

Abstract In multi-objective attribute fuzzy decision making one wishes to select the best alternative. Such a selection is based on many different aspects of varying degrees of importance. To solve the problem of selection one has to find at least approximate values that represent the satisfaction of each alternative to all objectives and also values that represent the relative importance of each objective. Moreover, the operation necessary to combine the values corresponding to the objectives is not uniquely defined and has to be chosen. This paper presents a general formulation of different operators for the computation of these values and provides some insight into the effect of applying a particular operation. This can be considered as a subjective optimism index of the decision maker.