How do you notice when you're rationalizing? Like, what *actually* tips you off, in real life?
I've listed my cues below; please add your own (one idea per comment), and upvote the comments that you either: (a) use; or (b) will now try using.
I'll be using this list in a trial rationality seminar on Wednesday; it also sounds useful in general.
Huh, really? For me it feels, um, the way I described it above -- I go to think about an important-email-I-need-to-send, or whatever, and I feel physically tense, and averse, and if I wasn't paying attention it used to be that before I'd exercised any conscious control I'd be checking the LW comment feed or something, to move away from the painful stimulus. And if it's a bad case, and something I'm not yet thinking about, it feels as though my eyes stop moving freely across my field of vision,and as though I'm kind of trapped or something, and as though whatever boring thing is in front of me is suddenly intensely absorbing [so that I won't have to think about that other thing]...
... oh! Thanks, that quite clarifies a few things.
Specifically: I notice my rationalization in the presence of obvious fear or disgust, but hadn't been thinking of strong negative affects as "ugh fields." Before your reply, I hadn't verbally noticed that being suddenly interested in marginal details was a good sign of ugh fields, and thus a likely warning sign for rationalization.