When Can This Technique Be Used?

Generally, paired comparisons can be used any time you have a set of items, issues, or concerns that you would like to rank or prioritize. The situations can be as trivial as where to dine out with the family, or as complex as allocating resources for research or even social improvements. The use of paired comparisons can be found in situations as common as getting your eyes examined for glasses. The doctor has you look at an eye chart through a number of different lenses. The goal is to find "Which of these lenses enables you to see the eye chart better? This first one or this second one?" They switch the lenses back and forth until you tell the doctor which one makes your vision better. Then the doctor goes on to another set of lenses and repeats the process until the best lenses are identified to correct your vision. The exam is a systematic process of presenting pairs of different lenses and eliminating lens options until the best lens is found.

Another example that would result in a ranking of items, instead of the selection of a particular pair of items, involves community work. After brainstorming with community members about important concerns in their community, you usually end up with a long list of issues. It is not always easy to prioritize that list after issues have been raised. Depending on the number of items needing to be prioritized, paired comparisons may be done manually or with this interactive computer program.