On the notion of fuzzy dispersion measure and its application to triangular fuzzy numbers

Abstract

In this paper, based on the analysis of the most widely used dispersion measure in the real context (namely, the variance), we introduce the notion of fuzzy dispersion measure associated to a finite set of data given by fuzzy numbers. This measure is implemented as a fuzzy number, so there is no loss of information caused by any defuzzification. The proposed concept satisfies the usual properties in a genuinely fuzzy sense and it avoids limitations in terms of its geometric shape or its analytical properties: under this conception, it could have a piece of its support in the negative part of the real line. This novel notion can be interpreted as a way of fusing the information included in a fuzzy data set in order to make a decision based on its dispersion. To illustrate the main characteristics of this approach, we present an example of a fuzzy dispersion measure that allows to conclude that this new way to deal this problem is coherent, at least, from the point of view of human intuition.