Aiming at the problem that artificial addition of elements in hesitant fuzzy elements affects decision-making results, a decision-making method based on the improved signed distance for the hesitant fuzzy prospect theory is proposed. Firstly, the signed distance is defined according to the positive and negative ideal points, the variances of hesitant fuzzy elements and the number of elements, and it is proved that the improved signed distance satisfies the basic properties of the signed distance. Furthermore, based on the improved signed distance, the hesitant fuzzy prospect value function is proposed, the hesitant fuzzy decision matrix is transformed into the value matrix, and then the profit-loss ratio of each scheme is calculated through the revenue loss function, and the order of the alternatives is determined accordingly. Finally, the feasibility and validity of the proposed method are verified by a numerical example, which demonstrates that this method not only avoids the influence of artificial adding elements on decision-making results, but also reflects reasonably the degree of divergence of decision-makers. It also considers the psychological behavior of people facing gains and losses,and the decision-making results are more realistic.