Consensus reaching with the dynamic hybrid trust network in group decision making based on an extensive bounded confidence

Abstract

This study focuses on the consensus-reaching process (CRP) in social networks. Over the years, ample research has been conducted on CRP levels. However, most feedback mechanisms do not consider the decision maker’s (DM) willingness to accept the recommendations provided by these mechanisms. Therefore, this study proposes an extensive bounded confidence-based group consensus feedback mechanism that primarily consists of two parts: (a) the construction of a hybrid dynamic trust network and (b) the construction of an extensive bounded confidence model. In the first part, we propose an algorithm to calculate the importance of network nodes and apply it to the trust propagation and aggregation process. In the second part, we propose an extensive bounded confidence model to address the limitations of existing traditional bounded confidence models. In the proposed extensive bounded confidence model, the trust threshold is no longer a “switch” to determine whether a DM interacts with other DMs but a basis to determine the strength of the DMs’ interaction; moreover, the hybrid dynamic trust relationship will determine the negotiation sets. A practical case of site selection and comparative analysis verify the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed mechanism.