Zoi Terzopoulou: Completing Preferences via Majority Dynamics: Effects on Consensus

Thursday, December 2, Room A707 from 13h15 to 14h30.

Abstract: Consider a group of agents that hold incomplete preferences over a set of alternatives (i.e., cannot compare some of them) and need to consensually select a winner amongst their options. A dynamic process in which the agents gradually complete their preferences by adopting the opinion of the majority may assist them in reaching the desired consensus. We explore such settings analytically and experimentally. We find that, unfortunately, majority dynamics are not always beneficial with respect to consensus, although they can often be so. We also study whether the chair of a group can manipulate the obtained consensus, by deciding the order in which the alternatives will be considered in the process.