Consistency and consensus measures for linguistic preference relations based on distribution assessments

In this paper, we propose the concept of distribution assessments in a linguistic term set, and study the operational laws of linguistic distribution assessments. The weighted averaging operator and the ordered weighted averaging operator for linguistic distribution assessments are presented. We also develop the concept of distribution linguistic preference relations, whose elements are linguistic distribution assessments. Further, we study the consistency and consensus measures for group decision making based on distribution linguistic preference relations. Two desirable properties of the proposed measures are shown. A consensus model also has been developed to help decision makers improve the consensus level among distribution linguistic preference relations. Finally, illustrative numerical examples are given. The results in this paper provide a theoretic basis for the application of linguistic distribution assessments in group decision making. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.