An investigation of performance, productivity, and rationality in multi-criteria decision making

The outcomes of multicriteria decisions are evaluated in terms of three distinct but interrelated measures: decision performance, decision-making productivity, and decision-maker rationality. Depending on whether subjects considered all of the criteria in their decisions or eliminated at least one, two groups of decision-makers emerged, called noneliminators, and eliminators. Their productivity was measured in terms of time and cognitive effort. The results indicate that eliminators consistently outperformed the noneliminators and had consistently higher confidence ratings as the number of alternatives increased. Noneliminators were significantly more productive timewise than eliminators. The degree of difference increased as the number of alternatives increased. Conversely, eliminators were significantly more productive in terms of cognitive effort, but the magnitude of the differences decreased drastically with increased alternatives.<>