An overview of methods for determining OWA weights

TLDR

The ordered weighted aggregation (OWA) operator has attracted increasing attention, with weight determination being a central challenge. This article reviews main weight‑determination methods and proposes a novel normal‑distribution‑based approach. The new method assigns weights via a normal distribution, reducing the impact of extreme arguments by giving them small values. The approach exhibits desirable properties, as investigated in the study. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Int J Int Syst 20:843–865.

Abstract

The ordered weighted aggregation (OWA) operator has received more and more attention since its appearance. One key point in the OWA operator is to determine its associated weights. In this article, I first briefly review existing main methods for determining the weights associated with the OWA operator, and then, motivated by the idea of normal distribution, I develop a novel practical method for obtaining the OWA weights, which is distinctly different from the existing ones. The method can relieve the influence of unfair arguments on the decision results by weighting these arguments with small values. Some of its desirable properties have also been investigated. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 20: 843–865, 2005.