ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to address the theoretical problem of representing the consensus decision of a small task-oriented group when the outcome is not a choice among discrete alternatives, but a quantitative judgment. Our specific focus is the ad hoc group of a dozen or fewer peers who are seeking to reach agreement on a single numerical value, although members’ initial views may be quite disparate and provoke some degree of conflict along the way. Civil juries awarding damages, university space committees allotting work areas, and or ganizational budget panels recommending monetary allocations are familiar examples within existing institutions and organizations. After a brief summary of historical developments, the sections that follow discuss the general approach (focusing on the general case and some special cases of the Social Decision Scheme model as an example applied to consensual choice), and then outline a consensus model for quantitative judgments. The final sections present some preliminary evaluations of the model, discuss shortcomings, and describe likely future developments of special cases for particularly interesting group decision environments.
