Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2019
Rationalization occurs when a person has performed an action and then concocts the beliefs and desires that would have made it rational. Then, people often adjust their own beliefs and desires to match the concocted ones. While many studies demonstrate rationalization, and a few theories describe its underlying cognitive mechanisms, we have little understanding of its function. Why is the mind designed to construct post hoc rationalizations of its behavior, and then to adopt them? This may accomplish an important task: transferring information between the different kinds of processes and representations that influence our behavior. Human decision making does not rely on a single process; it is influenced by reason, habit, instinct, norms, and so on. Several of these influences are not organized according to rational choice (i.e., computing and maximizing expected value). Rationalization extracts implicit information – true beliefs and useful desires – from the influence of these non-rational systems on behavior. This is a useful fiction – fiction, because it imputes reason to non-rational psychological processes; useful, because it can improve subsequent reasoning. More generally, rationalization belongs to the broader class of representational exchange mechanisms, which transfer information between many different kinds of psychological representations that guide our behavior. Representational exchange enables us to represent any information in the manner best suited to the particular tasks that require it, balancing accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility in thought. The theory of representational exchange reveals connections between rationalization and theory of mind, inverse reinforcement learning, thought experiments, and reflective equilibrium.
Target article
Rationalization is rational
Related commentaries (26)
Antecedent rationalization: Rationalization prior to action
Belief as a non-epistemic adaptive benefit
Cognitive dissonance processes serve an action-oriented adaptive function
Evidence for the rationalisation phenomenon is exaggerated
Ex ante coherence shifts
Hard domains, biased rationalizations, and unanswered empirical questions
Heroes of our own story: Self-image and rationalizing in thought experiments
Ideology, shared moral narratives, and the dark side of collective rationalization
Letting rationalizations out of the box
Means and ends of habitual action
Quantifying the prevalence and adaptiveness of behavioral rationalizations
Rational rationalization and System 2
Rationalization and self-sabotage
Rationalization and the status of folk psychology
Rationalization enables cooperation and cultural evolution
Rationalization in the pejorative sense: Cushman's account overlooks the scope and costs of rationalization
Rationalization is a suboptimal defense mechanism associated with clinical and forensic problems
Rationalization is irrational and self-serving, but useful
Rationalization is rare, reasoning is pervasive
Rationalization may improve predictability rather than accuracy
Rationalization of emotion is also rational
Rationalization: Why, when, and what for?
Rationalizations primarily serve reputation management, not decision making
The rationale of rationalization
The social function of rationalization: An identity perspective
What kind of rationalization is system justification?
Author response
Rationalization as representational exchange: Scope and mechanism