Intensity of preference


Intensity of preference, also known as intensity preference, is a term popularized by the work of the economist Kenneth Arrow, who was a co-recipient of the 1972 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. This term is used in reference to models for aggregating ordinal rankings.
This term is used in economics, politics, marketing, management science and other areas in which methods to derive the consensus ranking are developed.
In an analysis of voting, for example, the intensity of preference is a measure of an individual voter's willingness to incur the costs or inconvenience of the act of officially registering a preferential choice at the time and place required, not the vote itself.

Social choices

The "intensity" of preference can be a factor in aggregating individual choices into social choices.