Optimal? not

Saari at aol.com Saari at aol.com
Wed Jul 15 12:52:08 PDT 1998


In a message dated 98-07-11 20:16:05 EDT, you write:

>And
>if you chose A & B for voting a ratings difference, then why
>vote a small one??
...
>So that's the strategy to maximize your utility expectation: 
>If the sum in the previous paragraph is positive for i, then
>give maximum votes to i. If the sum is negative for i, then
>give i the minimum possible vote (even if that's negative).
>
>***
>
>I don't claim that that's rigorous, but hopefully it demonstrates
>why it's best to give all or nothing in direct point-assignment
>methods ("cardinal measure methods").

A more realistic assumption is that you do NOT have a reliable advance
predictor of the outcome or the likely ties.  What is the best strategy where
you really have no good predictor as to the likelihood of a tie between any
given set of candidates?

I claim it is a "spread vote" which matches as closely as possible to your
"real" feelings.  What do you think?

Mike S



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