Weighted scoring rules,the impartial culture condition,and homogeneity

The study considers the significance of weight selection for weighted scoring rules on three alternatives. Most research previously done in this area has been based on the assumption of the impartial culture condition. Intuition suggests that if preferences of individuals in a large group are at all distant or different from the impartial culture condition, then the weights selected for a weighted scoring rule become unimportant. It would seem likely in such a situation that one of the alternatives should be a clear front runner and win under almost any weighted scoring rule. A measure of social homogeneity is used in the study to represent the distance between a given set of individuals' preferences and the impartial culture condition. Based on computer simulation analysis, the results indicate that specific weight selection definitely becomes less important as the level of social homogeneity increases. However, the specific weight selection is still found to be of importance for situations with the greatest homogeneity that represent preferences the farthest distance from the condition of impartial culture.