Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T01:03:01.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rationalization may improve predictability rather than accuracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

P. Kyle Stanford Open the ORCID record for P. Kyle Stanford [Opens in a new window] ,
Ashley J. Thomas  and
Barbara W. Sarnecka
P. Kyle Stanford
Affiliation:
Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, CA92697-5100. [email protected]://faculty.sites.uci.edu/pkylestanford/
Ashley J. Thomas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138. [email protected]://ashleyjothomas.wixsite.com/mysite
Barbara W. Sarnecka
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA92697-5100. [email protected]://sites.google.com/uci.edu/sarneckalab
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present a theoretical and an empirical challenge to Cushman's claim that rationalization is adaptive because it allows humans to extract more accurate beliefs from our non-rational motivations for behavior. Rationalization sometimes generates more adaptive decisions by making our beliefs about the world less accurate. We suggest that the most important adaptive advantage of rationalization is instead that it increases our predictability (and therefore attractiveness) as potential partners in cooperative social interactions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e49
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baumard, N., André, J.-B. & Sperber, D. (2013) A mutualistic approach to morality: The evolution of fairness by partner choice. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(2):59–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, B. S. & Ditto, P. H. (2012) What dilemma? Moral evaluation shapes factual belief. Social Psychological and Personality Science 4(3):316–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanford, P. K. (2018) The difference between ice cream and Nazis: Moral externalization and the evolution of human cooperation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41:E95. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X17001911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, A. J., Stanford, P. K. & Sarnecka, B. W. (2016) No child left alone: Moral judgments about parents affect estimates of risk to children. Collabra 2:10. doi: http://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (in press) The moral psychology of obligation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.Google Scholar