A new generic model for applying multiple-attribute utility theory

A new model for preferences is introduced that weakens the notion of preferential independence. With this model the decision maker’s preferences over n real-valued attributes can be elicited with n – 1 sets of indifference curves. A simple way of modelling probability distributions with the help of minimally informative joint distributions is introduced in the area of decision making. The aim of these methods was to provide a straightforward method for performing a decision analysis that can be easily explained to engineers and the management. These methods are illustrated in a case-study.