Digital Scale or Intensity | Verbal Scale or Definition | Commentary |
1 | Equal importance of both elements: equally important | Both elements compete in the same way with the objective |
3 | One item is slightly more important than the other: Slightly more important | Experience and personal judgment slightly favor one element over the other |
5 | One element is more important than the other: highly important | Experience and personal judgment really favor one element over the other |
7 | One element is much more important than the other: very strongly important | One element is largely dominant, and this dominance is demonstrated in practice |
9 | One element is absolutely important than the other: very strongly important | The dominance of one element over another is demonstrated and absolute |
1,1, 2, 4, 6 | Intermediate value between two judgments | Used to refine one’s judgment |
Reciprocity | If element i is assigned one of the previous numbers when compared to element j, then j will have the inverse value when compared to i |