Comparison between multiple-choice and analytic hierarchy process: measuring human perception

The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the multiple-choice method in measuring human perception. Specifically, the results of comparisons of the answers to two questions on the same issues are shown, each formatted in a different way: multiple-choice (MC) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP not only clearly identifies the most important alternative but also the preference for each alternative by each decision-maker. Therefore, using AHP to analyze the decision-making process results in a precise clarification of preference for alternatives. Based on public opinion research using AHP, two findings are shown: (1) MC and AHP yield different aggregated rankings of alternatives, and (2) AHP reveals that in modified MC format, which gives respondents the option of indicating their second-best alternatives, the choice of a second-best alternative is independent of the difference in the degree of importance between best and the second best.