Directional Revision under Two-Horizon Deliberation: A Revealed-Preference Analysis

Abstract

We study deterministic choice when the same decision maker is observed before and after a deliberative intervention that makes one of two fixed ordinal consequence dimensions more salient. Both choice modes are path independent. Ordinary choice respects two-dimensional dominance, while any binary reversal under fuller deliberation must favor the alternative that is strictly better on the emphasized dimension. We characterize exactly the admissible ordinary and full-horizon rankings. The characterization yields a protected partial order, sharp pairwise and menu-level identification, a signed restriction on menu-level choice changes, and an acyclicity test for incomplete observations. With an ordered sequence of deliberative modes, choices from any fixed menu form a monotone tradeoff path: every switch improves the emphasized dimension, worsens the other dimension, and an abandoned alternative cannot reappear. When the emphasized consequence order is strict, the admissible rankings have an equivalent Kemeny-Kendall representation. The framework is ordinal: it requires neither a cardinal tradeoff nor lexicographic priority, and it applies whenever deliberation gives greater emphasis to one of two fixed consequence dimensions.