An efficient verifiable process for ordinal pairwise comparisons

Abstract

Ordinal consistency forms the basis for rationality in pairwise comparisons and is expressed as transitivity of binary preferences. We propose a new approach to the ordinal consistency which combines two main parts. First, a process is proposed which requires a smaller number of comparisons from a decision maker to compare all objects. Second, a principle of double check for indirect comparisons is introduced for the verification purposes. In case of ordinal inconsistency a previously developed system ORCON may be used to resolve inconsistency in a dialogue with a decision maker. The efficiency of the process is evaluated through a computer modelling and data from published research.