Measuring social consensus
David Flater
TL;DR
This article investigates the metrology of social consensus, a method for measuring consensus as a quantity to alleviate gridlock and possibly avoid escalation of conflicts.
Abstract
Many organizations describe their processes as consensus-driven, but there is no consensus on the definition of consensus. Qualitative definitions of consensus prioritize social phenomena like "unity" that are not necessarily measurable. Quantitative definitions of consensus derive from numbers of votes and can be realized in software. When unity and cooperation become unobtainable for any reason, measuring consensus as a quantity (an amount of agreement) is a reasonable adaptation to alleviate gridlock and possibly avoid escalation of conflicts. This article investigates the metrology of social consensus.