Intransitivity
In mathematics, intransitivity (sometimes called nontransitivity) is a property of binary relations that are not transitive relations.
Antitransitivity is a stronger property which describes a relation where, for any three values, the transitivity condition never holds.
Be warned, some authors use the term intransitive to refer to antitransitivity.
Notice that, for a relation to be intransitive, the transitivity condition just has to be not true at some
For a more complicated example of intransitivity, consider the relation R on the integers such that a R b if and only if a is a multiple of b or a divisor of b.
This relation is intransitive since, for example, 2 R 6 (2 is a divisor of 6) and 6 R 3 (6 is a multiple of 3), but 2 is neither a multiple nor a divisor of 3.
This does not imply that the relation is antitransitive (see below); for example, 2 R 6, 6 R 12, and 2 R 12 as well.
An example in biology comes from the food chain.
[3] Thus, the feed on relation among life forms is intransitive, in this sense.
Antitransitivity for a relation says that the transitive condition does not hold for any three values.
For example, the relation R on the integers, such that a R b if and only if a + b is odd, is intransitive.
The term intransitivity is often used when speaking of scenarios in which a relation describes the relative preferences between pairs of options, and weighing several options produces a "loop" of preference: Rock, paper, scissors; intransitive dice; and Penney's game are examples.
Real combative relations of competing species,[5] strategies of individual animals,[6] and fights of remote-controlled vehicles in BattleBots shows ("robot Darwinism")[7] can be cyclic as well.
Assuming no option is preferred to itself i.e. the relation is irreflexive, a preference relation with a loop is not transitive.
This can be illustrated for this example of a loop among A, B, and C. Assume the relation is transitive.
Therefore such a preference loop (or cycle) is known as an intransitivity.
Notice that a cycle is neither necessary nor sufficient for a binary relation to be not transitive.
For example, an equivalence relation possesses cycles but is transitive.
This is an example of an antitransitive relation that does not have any cycles.
In particular, by virtue of being antitransitive the relation is not transitive.
The game of rock, paper, scissors is an example.
The relation over rock, paper, and scissors is "defeats", and the standard rules of the game are such that rock defeats scissors, scissors defeats paper, and paper defeats rock.
Finally, it is also true that no option defeats itself.
This information can be depicted in a table: The first argument of the relation is a row and the second one is a column.
Now, notice that the following statement is true for any pair of elements x and y drawn (with replacement) from the set {rock, scissors, paper}: If x defeats y, and y defeats z, then x does not defeat z.
Thus, a cycle is neither necessary nor sufficient for a binary relation to be antitransitive.
It has been suggested that Condorcet voting tends to eliminate "intransitive loops" when large numbers of voters participate because the overall assessment criteria for voters balances out.
For instance, voters may prefer candidates on several different units of measure such as by order of social consciousness or by order of most fiscally conservative.
In such cases intransitivity reduces to a broader equation of numbers of people and the weights of their units of measure in assessing candidates.
Such as: While each voter may not assess the units of measure identically, the trend then becomes a single vector on which the consensus agrees is a preferred balance of candidate criteria.
