A linguistic modeling of consensus in group decision making based on OWA operators

TLDR

The study addresses multiperson multicriteria decision problems where experts evaluate alternatives against predefined criteria. The paper aims to assess consensual judgments and compute a consensus degree for each alternative. The authors model the process linguistically with fuzzy set theory, using OWA operators to express expert evaluations and a soft consensus degree derived from a fuzzy majority and linguistic quantifiers.

Abstract

In this paper, a model for group decision-making is proposed and defined in a linguistic context. A multiperson multicriteria decision problem is considered, in which a group of experts is involved in the evaluation of the performances of a set of alternatives with respect to a predefined set of criteria. The objective is to evaluate a consensual judgement and a consensus degree on each alternative. Both the experts' evaluations of the alternatives and the degree of consensus are expressed linguistically. A "soft" consensus degree referred to a fuzzy majority of the experts is proposed based on the concept of linguistic quantifier. The entire process is defined in a linguistic domain and modeled within fuzzy set theory by ordered weighted average (OWA) operators.