Combining of judgments in imprecise voting multi-criteria decision problems

The imprecise voting multi-criteria decision problem depends on the way for combining the judgments of experts or a decision maker. Modifications of the DS/AHP method (Dempster-Shafer theory/analytic hierarchy process) are studied in the paper. These modifications use groups of experts or decision makers for comparing decision alternatives and criteria and they do not require assigning favourability values for groups of decision alternatives and criteria. Two ways are proposed for combining the expert judgments. The first way uses the extended total probability theorem for dealing with conditional basic probability assignments. The second way considers every criterion as an unreliable source of evidence and uses Dempster’s combination rule. Moreover, the imprecise Dirichlet model is applied to the modifications for making cautious decision. Numerical examples explain and illustrate the proposed modifications.

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