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Analyzing Saaty’s consistency test in pairwise comparison method: a perspective based on linguistic and numerical scale

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Abstract

The consistency test is a vital basis of the pairwise comparison method, which is performed to ensure that the decision maker is being logical in his/her pairwise comparisons. In the analytic hierarchy process, the pairwise comparison method with a fixed numerical scale has been employed. In this study, we provide a systematic review analysis regarding the inconsistency causes in the pairwise comparison method with a fixed numerical scale, and propose the paradoxes on Saaty’s consistency test in this pairwise comparison method. Meanwhile, based on the use of the consistency-driven linguistic methodology, we propose a novel approach from a perspective of the linguistic and numerical scale to deal with the inconsistency in the pairwise comparison method.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grants (Nos. 71571124, 71171160, 71471065) from NSF of China, the grant (No. skqy201606) from Sichuan University, the grant (No. 2015GD05) from South China University of Technology, the grant (No. GDUPTLAB201602) from the Open Fund of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Petrochemical Equipment Fault Diagnosis and the grant (No. 2015B090903084) from Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Cooperation Project.

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Correspondence to Yucheng Dong.

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Communicated by V. Loia.

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Zhang, H., Chen, X., Dong, Y. et al. Analyzing Saaty’s consistency test in pairwise comparison method: a perspective based on linguistic and numerical scale. Soft Comput 22, 1933–1943 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-016-2454-x

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