Minimal preference change

Abstract. We propose a novel approach to preference change. We treat a set of preferences as a special kind of theory, and define minimal change contraction and revision operations in the spirit of minimal change as advocated by the Alchourron, Gardenfors, and Makinson (AGM) theory of belief revision. We characterise minimal contraction of preference sets by a set of postulates and prove a representation theorem. We also give a linear time algorithm which implements minimal contraction by a single preference. We also define minimal contraction by a set of preferences, and for a significant special case state postulates, prove a representation theorem, and provide an efficient algorithm implementing minimal contraction by a set of preferences. Key words: Preferences, preference change, belief revision