Decision Aggregation Processes and Sociocultural Influences

Dear Colleagues,

In a decision-making context, aggregation refers to the process of combining individuals' choices or opinions to arrive at a collective decision. Decision aggregation is used by economic organizations, committees, and juries. Within this context, decisions (i.e., choices between two alternatives) are made by a group of individuals (or criteria) who have the same objective function (as defined in Condorcet’s jury theorem). In this vein, this Special Issue will have a twofold focus: the formal and behavioral aspects of decision aggregation.

The formal aspect of decision aggregation is the identification of the optimal decision rule, i.e., the optimal decision rule determined under constraints that incorporates behavioral considerations, as well as the analysis of the decision rule's characteristics and features.

Regarding the behavioral aspect, sociocultural influences play a significant role in decision aggregation, shaping not only the decisions of individuals, such as individual preferences, skills, and strategies, but also the means of aggregation, such as democracy, unanimity, and dictatorship.

The formal and behavioral aspects of decision aggregation, as well as the recognition of their interplay, provide a deeper understanding of how societies make collective choices that reflect their values and norms.

Prof. Ruth Ben-Yashar
Guest Editor

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