Correlation Coefficients of Probabilistic Hesitant Fuzzy Elements and Their Applications to Evaluation of the Alternatives

• Main Authors: Zhong-xing Wang, Jian Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
• Series: Symmetry
• Subjects: probabilistic hesitant fuzzy element; covariance; correlation coefficient; northwest corner rule; multi-criteria decision-making
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/9/11/259

Correlation coefficient is one of the broadly use indexes in multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) processes. However, some important issues related to correlation coefficient utilization within probabilistic hesitant fuzzy environments remain to be addressed. The purpose of this study is introduced a MCDM method based on correlation coefficients utilize probabilistic hesitant fuzzy information. First, the covariance and correlation coefficient between two PHFEs is introduced, the properties of the proposed covariance and correlation coefficient are discussed. In addition, the northwest corner rule to obtain the expected mean related to the multiply of two PHFEs is introduced. Second, the weighted correlation coefficient is proposed to make the proposed MCDM method more applicable. And the properties of the proposed weighted correlation coefficient are also discussed. Finally, an illustrative example is demonstrated the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the correlation coefficient propose in this paper lies in the interval [−1, 1], which not only consider the strength of relationship between the PHFEs but also whether the PHFEs are positively or negatively related. The advantage of this method is it can avoid the inconsistency of the decision-making result due to the loss of information.