The decision-making paradox is a phenomenon related to
decision-making
In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either r ...
and the quest for determining reliable decision-making methods. It was first described by Triantaphyllou , and has been recognized in the related literature as a fundamental paradox in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) and
decision analysis Decision analysis (DA) is the discipline comprising the philosophy, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, ...
since then.
Description
The decision-making paradox was first described in 1989,
and further elaborated in the 2000 book by Triantaphyllou on
multi-criteria decision analysis
Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making (both in daily life and in settings ...
(MCDA) / multi-criteria decision making (MCDM).
It arises from the observation that different decision-making methods, both normative and descriptive, yield different results, when fed with exactly the same decision problem and data.
It has been recognized in the related literature as a fundamental paradox in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) / multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), and
decision analysis Decision analysis (DA) is the discipline comprising the philosophy, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, ...
since then.
In a study reported in ''International Journal of Decision Support Systems''
and ''Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A Comparative Study'',
the following investigation was undertaken. Since in the beginning it was assumed that the best method is not known, the problem of selecting the best method was solved by successively using different methods. The methods used in that study were the
weighted sum model
In decision theory, the weighted sum model (WSM),
also called weighted linear combination (WLC) or simple additive weighting (SAW),
is the best known and simplest multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) / multi-criteria decision making method ...
(WSM), the