Cue for noticing rationalization: I find my mouth responding with a “no” before stopping to think or draw breath.
(Example: Bob: “We shouldn’t do question three this way; you only think so because you’re a bad writer”.
My mouth/brain: “No, we should definitely do question three this way! [because I totally don’t want to think I’m a bad writer]”
Me: Wait, my mouth just moved without me being at all curious as to how question three will play out, nor about what Bob is seeing in question three. I should call an interrupt here.)
Bob: “We shouldn’t do question three this way; you only think so because you’re a bad writer”. My mouth/brain: “No, we should definitely do question three this way! [because I totally don’t want to think I’m a bad writer]”
It’s probably generically the case that the likelihood of rationalization increases with the contextual cue of a slight. But one usually isn’t aware of this in real time.
Sometimes this happens for me when the person just said (or is about to say) an invalid argument that I’ve heard before and know exactly how to correct/retort.
Cue for noticing rationalization: I find my mouth responding with a “no” before stopping to think or draw breath.
(Example: Bob: “We shouldn’t do question three this way; you only think so because you’re a bad writer”. My mouth/brain: “No, we should definitely do question three this way! [because I totally don’t want to think I’m a bad writer]” Me: Wait, my mouth just moved without me being at all curious as to how question three will play out, nor about what Bob is seeing in question three. I should call an interrupt here.)
It’s probably generically the case that the likelihood of rationalization increases with the contextual cue of a slight. But one usually isn’t aware of this in real time.
Sometimes this happens for me when the person just said (or is about to say) an invalid argument that I’ve heard before and know exactly how to correct/retort.
This one is a big clue for me too.