Equivalent Information for Multiobjective Interactive Procedures

Despite the mathematical properties and algorithmic features of an interactive method, that method’s success usually lies in the kind of information it requires from the decision maker. In some cases, this information constrains the decision maker. If she does not find it easy and comfortable to answer the questions posed by the algorithm, then she will very likely give inconsistent answers, and the method will fail to find her most preferred solution. Therefore, it is of interest to find relations among the different kinds of information (local weights, local trade-offs, reference points, etc.) to allow the decision maker to choose what kind of questions he wants to answer, and to provide him with enough information to give such answers. In this paper, we define equivalent information—that is, different kinds of information—that produces the same solution when used in their corresponding interactive schemes.