Behavioural issues in MCDM: Neglected research questions

Multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) has been an important and active research area for a quarter of a century. From the beginning, many of the topics in MCDM, with the exception of multiattribute utility theory (MAUT), were optimization-related. In the 1970s research in MCDM focused on the theory of multiple-objective mathematical programming and procedures for solving such problems. In the 1980s there was a shift in emphasis towards decision support. Accordingly, much research focused on the user interface and on supporting the entire decision-making process in the broad sense. The 1990s have brought about an information and communication technology revolution, with powerful personal computers, networks and exciting software. The consequences of this resolution on our field remain to be seen. Behavioural decision theorists have studied human decision making in great detail. Since the late 1960s Einhorn, Edwards, Kahneman, Larichev, Simon, Tversky and others have developed new theories to explain choice and decision behaviour. So far this behavioural research has had relatively little impact on MCDM.