Disappointment in Social Choice Protocols

Abstract

Social choice theory is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual preferences, interests, or welfare to reach a collective decision or social welfare in some sense. We introduce a new criterion for social choice protocols called social disappointment. Social disappointment happens when the outcome of a voting system occurs for those alternatives which are at the end of at least half of individual preference profiles. Here we introduce some protocols that prevent social disappointment and prove an impossibility theorem based on this key concept.