Rationalisation
Usually counted a neurotic defence; disavowal level on the DSM-IV scale; secondary in McWilliams' scheme. The person supplies a plausible, self-serving explanation for behaviour or feelings whose real motive they don't want to see.
What drives it
Protects self-esteem and avoids guilt by making the real motive (fear, greed, envy, laziness) look like good judgment.
How it shows
Work
“We didn't promote her because she isn't ready,” when the real reason is threat. “I'm just being thorough,” for avoidance. Reasons are offered unasked and at length, and when one is knocked down another replaces it while the conclusion never moves. Listeners feel the argument is fine and the conclusion came first.
Relationships
Staying “for the kids” or “because of the money” when fear is the driver. “I only read his messages because I was worried about him.” The job you didn't get wasn't a good fit anyway.
Self
The reasons arrive after the decision, and you feel relief once a good-sounding one turns up. Swap in someone else's name: would you accept the same reason from them?
What tells it apart
Motivated reasoning: Motivated reasoning biases how evidence is weighed before a conclusion; rationalisation is the after-the-fact justification, visible when the reasons shift but the conclusion stays put.
Cognitive dissonance: Dissonance is the tension; rationalisation is one way of resolving it, recognisable because attitudes change while behaviour doesn't.
Intellectualisation: Intellectualisation drains feeling from any topic; rationalisation defends one particular decision or act.
A test
Knock out the stated reason and see what happens; if a new reason appears and the decision doesn't move, it was a rationalisation.
Questions to carry
- With the stated reason knocked out, what happens to the decision, and what reason appears next?
- Which decision of mine has a very good reason that came after the decision itself?
How strong the research is
moderate. A clinical concept with strong support from neighbouring research on cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning and choice blindness, which shows people inventing plausible reasons after the fact.
Where it comes from
Ernest Jones, 1908
Sources
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943)
- Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957)
- Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities (1999)