Explaining robust additive utility models by sequences of preference swaps

K. Belahcene (), C. Labreuche (), N. Maudet (), V. Mousseau () and W. Ouerdane ()
Additional contact information
K. Belahcene: LGI, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay
C. Labreuche: Thales Research & Technology
N. Maudet: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS
V. Mousseau: LGI, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay
W. Ouerdane: LGI, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay

Theory and Decision, 2017, vol. 82, issue 2, No 1, 183 pages

Abstract: Abstract As decision-aiding tools become more popular everyday—but at the same time more sophisticated—it is of utmost importance to develop their explanatory capabilities. Some decisions require careful explanations, which can be challenging to provide when the underlying mathematical model is complex. This is the case when recommendations are based on incomplete expression of preferences, as the decision-aiding tool has to infer despite this scarcity of information. This step is key in the process but hardly intelligible for the user. The robust additive utility model is a necessary preference relation which makes minimal assumptions, at the price of handling a collection of compatible utility functions, virtually impossible to exhibit to the user. This strength for the model is a challenge for the explanation. In this paper, we come up with an explanation engine based on sequences of preference swaps, that is, pairwise comparison of alternatives. The intuition is to confront the decision maker with “elementary” comparisons, thus building incremental explanations. Elementary here means that alternatives compared may only differ on two criteria. Technically, our explanation engine exploits some properties of the necessary preference relation that we unveil in the paper. Equipped with this, we explore the issues of the existence and length of the resulting sequences. We show in particular that in the general case, no bound can be given on the length of explanations, but that in binary domains, the sequences remain short.

Keywords: Multicriteria decision making; Explanation; Necessary preference relation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11238-016-9560-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:theord:v:82:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11238-016-9560-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/11238/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11238-016-9560-1

Access Statistics for this article

Theory and Decision is currently edited by Mohammed Abdellaoui

More articles in Theory and Decision from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().