Graphical Models and Collective Choice

Abstract

When groups of individuals make collective decisions, it is obvious that if all members share similar goals, agreement will be reached more quickly than if members have diverse opinions. This common-sense notion is quantified by using the framework of graphical models to relate choices that group members may favor. It is shown that the similarity relations between members' choices play the dominant role in the ease or difficulty with which the group can reach agreement. If similarity relations among members' choices are sparse, then consensus is likely to be very fragile and easy to disrupt. Five specific findings of this nature are reported. In addition, there are three other spin-off results. Two are related to biological system design; the third relates measures for predictability and Shannon information.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 22, 2005
Accession Number
ADA438432

Entities

People

  • Whitman Richards

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cognitive Science
  • Command And Control
  • Complex Systems
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Contracts
  • Elections
  • Information Theory
  • Machine Learning
  • Neural Networks
  • Probability
  • Psychology
  • Reasoning
  • Systems Biology

Readers

  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Theoretical Analysis.