Table 7. AHP � fundamental scale (Saaty, 1987: 165)
| Intensity of importance on an absolute scale | Definition | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Equal importance | Two activities contribute equally to the objective |
| 3 | Moderate importance of one over another | Experience and judgement strongly favor one activity over another |
| 5 | Essential or strong importance | Experience and judgement strongly favor one activity over another |
| 7 | Very strong importance | An activity is strongly favored and its dominance demonstrated in practice |
| 9 | Extreme importance | The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest possible order of affirmation |
| 2, 4, 6, 8 | Intermediate values between the two adjacent judgements | When compromise is needed |
| Reciprocals | If activity i has one of the above numbers assigned to it when compared with activity j, then j has the reciprocal value when compared with i | |
| Rationales | Ratios arising from the scale | If consistency were to be forced by obtaining n numerical values to span the matrix |