A different perspective on a scale for pairwise comparisons

Abstract

One of the major challenges for collective intelligence is inconsistency, which is unavoidable whenever subjective assessments are involved. Pairwise comparisons allow one to represent such subjective assessments and to process them by analyzing, quantifying and identifying the inconsistencies. We propose using smaller scales for pairwise comparisons and provide mathematical and practical justifications for this change. Our postulate's aim is to initiate a paradigm shift in the search for a better scale construction for pairwise comparisons. Beyond pairwise comparisons, the results presented may be relevant to other methods using subjective scales. Keywords: pairwise comparisons, collective intelligence, scale, subjective assessment, inaccuracy, inconsistency.