Doug_S. comments on Rationalization - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 September 2007 07:29PM

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Comment author: Doug_S. 01 October 2007 05:16:11PM 3 points [-]

Random comment:

Many years ago, there were a series of articles written by the pseudonym Archibald Putt, collectively referred to as "Putt's Laws", that appeared in Research/Development magazine. One law is relevant to the topic at hand.

"Decisions are justified by benefits to the organization; they are made by considering benefits to the decisionmakers."

If it is easier to lie convincingly when you believe the lie, then rationalization makes perfect sense. One makes a decision based on selfish, primarily unconscious motives, and then comes up with a semi-convincing rationalization for public consumption. "I stole that because I deserved it" would be a classic example of this kind of justification.