Cover: What If Utility Functions Do Not Exist?

What If Utility Functions Do Not Exist?

by Fred S. Roberts

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Discusses alternatives to the strict decisionmaking goal of ranking all alternatives or, equivalently, obtaining a utility function. For many military problems, the best information available is the combined judgments of experts. Often, however, the preferences of decisionmakers are too inconsistent or ambiguous to permit a complete ranking of alternatives or a utility function. Optional methods for dealing with such a situation include (1) finding a procedure through which preferences can be modified to obtain a utility function; (2) using the utility assignment that best approximates a utility function; or (3) modifying the demands on utility functions. This study emphasizes the third alternative, and describes it in terms of techniques from the theory of measurement, recently developed by behavioral scientists, that facilitate decisionmaking where no utility functions exist. (See also RM-5957, RM-6115, RM-6118, RM-6299.)

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