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Rationalization is rational.

Fiery Cushman1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138cushman@fas.harvard.eduhttps://cushmanlab.fas.harvard.edu.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|May 29, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Rationalization helps integrate non-rational decision-making influences by creating useful fictions that improve future reasoning. This process transfers information between different psychological systems guiding behavior.

Keywords:
cognitive dissonancehabitizationinverse reinforcement learningrationalizationreflective equilibriumrepresentational exchangeself-perceptionsocial learningtheory of minduseful fiction

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Rationalization involves creating post hoc justifications for actions.
  • Existing research demonstrates rationalization but lacks functional understanding.
  • Human decision-making integrates rational and non-rational influences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the functional role of rationalization in human cognition.
  • To understand how rationalization transfers information between psychological processes.
  • To investigate rationalization as a representational exchange mechanism.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical analysis of rationalization processes.
  • Examination of cognitive mechanisms underlying belief and desire adjustment.
  • Connecting rationalization to broader theories of representational exchange.

Main Results:

  • Rationalization extracts implicit information from non-rational influences.
  • It functions as a 'useful fiction' to enhance subsequent reasoning.
  • Rationalization is a form of representational exchange.

Conclusions:

  • Rationalization serves a crucial function in integrating diverse decision-making systems.
  • It improves cognitive flexibility by enabling information transfer.
  • The theory links rationalization to theory of mind and learning mechanisms.