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318 Decisions involving groups of individuals
These values are shown below with 100 representing the most preferred
destination and 0 the least preferred.
Destination Person A Person B Average
Rio de Janeiro 100 50 75
San Francisco 40 100 70
Toronto 0 0 0
If we take a simple average of values for each destination it can be seen
that Rio will be the group choice. However, our calculation assumes that
a move from 0 to 100 on one person’s value scale represents the same
increase in preference as a move from 0 to 100 on the other person’s scale.
Suppose, for the moment, that we could actually measure and compare
the strength of preference of the two people on a common scale. We
might find that A is less concerned about a move from his best to his
worst location than B, so that if we measure their value scales against
our common strength of preference scale we have a situation like that
shown in Figure 12.1. The individuals’ values measured on this common
Common strength
of preference scale
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Person A's
value scale
100 Rio de Janeiro
50
0
San Francisco
Person B's
value scale
100
50
San Francisco
Rio de Janeiro
Toronto 0 Toronto
Figure 12.1 – Measuring individuals’ strengths of preference against a common scale