Uncertainty Characteristics of Subjective Opinions

Abstract

In this work, we study different types of uncertainty in subjective opinions based on the internal belief mass distribution and the base rate distribution. Subjective opinions which are used as arguments in subjective logic (SL) expand the traditional belief functions by including base rate distributions. Fundamental uncertainty characteristics of a given opinion depend on its `singularity', `vagueness', `vacuity', `dissonance', `consonance' and `monosonance'. We define those concepts in the formalism of SL and show how these characteristics can be manifested in the three different opinion classes which are binomial, multinomial, and hyper-opinions. We clarify the relationships between the uncertainty characteristics and discuss how they influence decision making in SL.