Three-way conflict analysis: A unification of models based on rough sets and formal concept analysis

Abstract

The Pawlak model of conflict analysis uses three-valued ratings (i.e., positive, neutral, and negative) of a set of agents on a set of issues. Several extensions to the Pawlak model, namely, rough sets based qualitative and quantitative models, formal concept analysis based quantitative models, and three-way conflict analysis models, have been proposed in recent years. The main objective of this paper is to propose a more general model that unifies these existing models in an evaluation-based framework of three-way decision. The proposed model uses a pair of evaluations, one for support and the other for opposition, for trisecting the set of agents. By considering qualitative and quantitative evaluations, we derive a qualitative model and a quantitative model of three-way conflict analysis, respectively. The corresponding two models built based on rough sets and the corresponding two models built based on formal concept analysis are special cases. A unification of existing models provides insights into a common structure in formulating three-way conflict analysis with different choices of evaluations. We illustrate an application of the three-way conflict analysis model in making development plans for Gansu Province in China.