Linguistic measures based on fuzzy coincidence for reaching consensus in group decision making

Assuming a linguistic framework, a model for the consensus reaching problem in heterogeneous group decision making is proposed. This model contains two types of linguistic consensus measures: linguistic consensus degrees and linguistic proximities to guide the consensus reaching process. These measures evaluate the current consensus state on three levels of action: level of the pairs of alternatives, level of the alternatives, and level of the relation. They are based on a fuzzy characterization of the concept of coincidence, and they are obtained by means of several conjunction functions for handling linguistic weighted information the LOWA operator for aggregating linguistic information and linguistic quantifiers representing the concept of fuzzy majority. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.