Maybe you could give some examples of the sort of rationalizations you're referring to in your post, so we would better know how to answer your question? I think I might fall into this category, but I might not. I frequently think it would be a good idea for me to do something, but I don't do it and tell myself I lack the necessary psychological strength. Is this rationalizing? Also, I sometimes experience ugh fields around learning things that might be uncomfortable (in this sense a student might be afraid to see what score they got on a test).

I don't claim to have always been this way; I was famous for lawyer style argument in elementary school. Just with exposure to less wrong (which I found somewhat early, at age 15).

Edit: I now no longer claim to not rationalize, only to do it fairly little, and I'm fairly uncertain about the entire issue.