What is rationalization? To me, it feels like a lower-level, more primitive part of the brain recruiting the verbal centres in an attempt to persuade the higher level part of the brain to do something short-sighted. Perhaps these people are unusually non-conflicted - for example, their their lower levels may have a lower-than-usual time preference, or their higher levels may be too weak to get in the way in the first place.
(I keep wanting to say "id" and "super-ego" here despite knowing that Freud isn't scientific. Are there better terms?).
Anna Salamon and I are confused. Both of us notice ourselves rationalizing on pretty much a daily basis and have to apply techniques like the Litany of Tarski pretty regularly. But in several of our test sessions for teaching rationality, a handful of people report never rationalizing and seem to have little clue what Tarski is for. They don't relate to any examples we give, whether fictitious or actual personal examples from our lives. Some of these people show signs of being rather high-level rationalists overall, although some don't.