PROMETHEE
Updated 2026-08-08
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) is a family of multi-criteria decision methods based on outranking. For each criterion, a preference function defines how large a difference in performance is needed before one alternative is considered better than another, along with thresholds for indifference and strict preference. Pairwise comparisons then produce a positive flow, measuring how much an alternative outranks the others, and a negative flow, measuring how much it is outranked. Net flows give a complete ranking, while the flow pair identifies alternatives that are not comparable.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use preference function: define how large a difference counts as better before comparing alternatives. - Use flow comparison: read the positive and negative flows rather than a single score. - Use partial ranking: accept incomparability when two alternatives trade off on different criteria.
Anchor fast decisions
Treating any difference in performance as significant makes rankings sensitive to trivial gaps, while treating differences as significant only above a threshold is closer to how preferences actually work. Preference functions encode that threshold, so the comparison reflects meaningful differences rather than measurement noise. Aggregating the pairwise comparisons into flows produces a score that accounts for how each alternative performs against every other, not only against an ideal. Where two alternatives each win on different criteria, the flow pair shows the trade-off.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preference_ranking_organization_method_for_enrichment_evaluationverified
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