Minimum cost consensus model with altruistic preference

The minimum cost consensus model (MCCM) aims at reaching group consensus for either conflict or polarized opinions evaluated in group decision making. Decision makers (DMs) consider both their own and other interests in real-world minimum cost consensus problems, exhibiting the altruistic preference behavior. To quantify the behavior, we define a satisfaction degree function to reflect the interaction among DMs. On this basis, the MCCM with altruistic preference (MCCM-AP) is built, in which a novel consensus measurement for concentrated or scattered opinions is introduced. Furthermore, the MCCM-AP based satisfaction improvement model is established. Finally, an illustrative example and a practical case study are carried out to illustrate the performance of the proposed models, together with sensitivity and comparative analyses are conducted to explore the impact of altruistic preference and discuss the merits of our proposal. The findings indicate that total adjustment cost is nonincreasing with the increase of altruistic preference degree, which provides the decision support for managers to handle the altruistic preference behavior and reduce the consensus cost.