Consensus and dissention: A measure of ordinal dispersion

William J. Tastle; Mark J. Wierman

doi:10.1016/j.ijar.2006.06.024

Consensus and dissention: A measure of ordinal dispersion

William J. Tastle, Mark J. Wierman

Department of Computer Science, Design & Journalism

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new measure of dispersion is introduced as a representation of consensus (agreement) and dissention (disagreement). Building on the generally accepted Shannon entropy, this measure utilizes a probability distribution and the distance between categories to produce a value spanning the unit interval. The measure is applied to the Likert scale (or any ordinal scale) to determine degrees of consensus or agreement. Using this measure, data on ordinal scales can be given a value of dispersion that is both logically and theoretically sound.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	531-545
Number of pages	15
Journal	International Journal of Approximate Reasoning
Volume	45
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijar.2006.06.024
State	Published - Aug 2007

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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Software
Theoretical Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Applied Mathematics

Cite this

Tastle, W. J., & Wierman, M. J. (2007). Consensus and dissention: A measure of ordinal dispersion. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 45(3), 531-545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijar.2006.06.024

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Access to Document

10.1016/j.ijar.2006.06.024