The inferring of preferences from indifferences in multicriteria decision analysis

Rivett [5] has proposed that an approximate preference ordering may be deduced from statements of pairwise indifferences between decision alternatives by using multi-dimensional scaling. In this paper it is demonstrated that much stronger evaluations of preference are possible by applying formal statistical inferential procedures to a simple parametric model, relating indifference to closeness on a scale defined by a linear function of attribute values. This can be used to screen out a considerable proportion of less desirable decision alternatives. The method is illustrated by application to Rivett's problem of the hypothetical Town of Brove, for which a satisfactory matching with Rivett's utilities is obtained. It is also shown that the method can provide useful preference orderings on the basis of less than 20% of all possible pairwise comparisons between alternatives.