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