<p>I've commented to request clarification of your first question, but would like to edit this answer to address it too if you can clarify for us.</p>

<p>As for your second question, I'll begin where I often do when researching simple questions: with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_%28making_excuses%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>. Within our psychological context, it defines rationalization as a defense mechanism (citing <a href="http://depression.about.com/od/glossary/g/rationalization.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Schimelpfening, 2011</a>). By <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_mechanism" rel="nofollow noreferrer">definition, defense mechanisms</a> exist "to <strong>manipulate, deny, or distort reality</strong> in order to <strong>defend</strong> against feelings of <strong>anxiety and unacceptable impulses</strong> to maintain one's self schema." (I found the cited link broken here, FWIW.) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms#The_ego.27s_use_of_defence_mechanisms" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Further</a>, "When anxiety becomes overwhelming, it is the ego's place to protect the person by employing defence mechanisms. <strong>Guilt, embarrassment and shame</strong> often accompany anxiety." Disappointment might be similar enough to anxiety for your purposes, but I would say it's a lower-arousal form of negative affect (see the circumplex model of affect I mentioned in <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/5337/4086">a previous answer</a>). Disappointment may be a bit closer to guilt, embarrassment, or shame in terms of relatively neutral / non-specific arousal, but that's just an educated guess / intuitive judgment.</p>

<p>If disappointment $\approx$ these other negative emotions, let's return to Schimelpfening (2011): "An unconscious defense mechanism in which irrational or unacceptable <strong>behavior</strong>, motives, or feelings are logically <strong>justified</strong> or made consciously tolerable by plausible means." Clearly behavioral justification is definitional. "Post-decisional <strong>regret</strong>" – which sounds just about as similar to disappointment as any affect word I've mentioned yet – is avoided in the act of justifying a decision and prevented thereafter, according to cognitive dissonace theory (see <a href="http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch08-tp-01" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Smith &amp; Mackie, 2007</a>; I may be interpreting loosely).</p>

<p>If this satisfies you that rationalization serves the purpose of preventing/avoiding/justifying negative emotion $\approx$ disappointment, the only remaining question (aside from your first one) is whether people use it. <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-i-rationalization" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Burton (2012)</a> offers some pretty good examples from literature and history, so as @rmayer06 said, the answer is "yes [more or less]".</p>

<p><strong>References</strong></p>

<p>Burton, N. (2012). Self-deception I: Rationalization: Human beings are not rational, but rationalizing animals. <em>Psychology Today: Hide and Seek.</em> Retrieved from: <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-i-rationalization" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-i-rationalization</a>.</p>

<p>Schimelpfening, N. (2011). Rationalization. <em>About.com: Health: Depression: Glossary.</em> Retrieved from: <a href="http://depression.about.com/od/glossary/g/rationalization.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://depression.about.com/od/glossary/g/rationalization.htm</a></p>

<p>Smith, E. R., &amp; Mackie, D. M. (2007). <em>Social psychology</em>. Psychology Press/Taylor &amp; Francis (UK). Retrieved from: <a href="http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch08-tp-01" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch08-tp-01</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T04:20:18.750Z
2014-02-11T04:20:18.750Z
2017-04-13T12:56:16.417Z
Nick Stauner
<p>What's the purpose of rationalization, specifically in modeling human behaviors?</p>

<p>It is true that people use rationalization to prevent/avoid/justify disappointment? </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T03:44:01.040Z
This seems like more of a philosophical question- not sure you can get a scientific answer to the first part. The second part is "yes."
theMayer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T04:20:07.453Z
Welcome to cogsci.SE. I'm interested in your first question; could you specify what you mean by `modeling`/`learning`? You seem to use these interchangeably, but they have rather different meanings. As for the second question, this one is rather easily researched. I'll demonstrate a bit in my answer.
Nick Stauner
<emotion><cognitive-modeling>
Is rationalization needed for learning human behaviors?
ielearner
# Is rationalization needed for learning human behaviors?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-10)

What's the purpose of rationalization, specifically in modeling human behaviors?

It is true that people use rationalization to prevent/avoid/justify disappointment?

**Tags:** emotion, cognitive-modeling

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This seems like more of a philosophical question- not sure you can get a scientific answer to the first part. The second part is "yes."  
> **username_2**: Welcome to cogsci.SE. I'm interested in your first question; could you specify what you mean by `modeling`/`learning`? You seem to use these interchangeably, but they have rather different meanings. As for the second question, this one is rather easily researched. I'll demonstrate a bit in my answer.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-02-11. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

I've commented to request clarification of your first question, but would like to edit this answer to address it too if you can clarify for us.

As for your second question, I'll begin where I often do when researching simple questions: with [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_%28making_excuses%29). Within our psychological context, it defines rationalization as a defense mechanism (citing [Schimelpfening, 2011](http://depression.about.com/od/glossary/g/rationalization.htm)). By [definition, defense mechanisms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_mechanism) exist "to **manipulate, deny, or distort reality** in order to **defend** against feelings of **anxiety and unacceptable impulses** to maintain one's self schema." (I found the cited link broken here, FWIW.) [Further](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms#The_ego.27s_use_of_defence_mechanisms), "When anxiety becomes overwhelming, it is the ego's place to protect the person by employing defence mechanisms. **Guilt, embarrassment and shame** often accompany anxiety." Disappointment might be similar enough to anxiety for your purposes, but I would say it's a lower-arousal form of negative affect (see the circumplex model of affect I mentioned in [a previous answer](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/5337/4086)). Disappointment may be a bit closer to guilt, embarrassment, or shame in terms of relatively neutral / non-specific arousal, but that's just an educated guess / intuitive judgment.

If disappointment $\approx$ these other negative emotions, let's return to Schimelpfening (2011): "An unconscious defense mechanism in which irrational or unacceptable **behavior**, motives, or feelings are logically **justified** or made consciously tolerable by plausible means." Clearly behavioral justification is definitional. "Post-decisional **regret**" – which sounds just about as similar to disappointment as any affect word I've mentioned yet – is avoided in the act of justifying a decision and prevented thereafter, according to cognitive dissonace theory (see [Smith & Mackie, 2007](http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch08-tp-01); I may be interpreting loosely).

If this satisfies you that rationalization serves the purpose of preventing/avoiding/justifying negative emotion $\approx$ disappointment, the only remaining question (aside from your first one) is whether people use it. [Burton (2012)](http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-i-rationalization) offers some pretty good examples from literature and history, so as @rmayer06 said, the answer is "yes [more or less]".

**References**

Burton, N. (2012). Self-deception I: Rationalization: Human beings are not rational, but rationalizing animals. *Psychology Today: Hide and Seek.* Retrieved from: <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-i-rationalization>.

Schimelpfening, N. (2011). Rationalization. *About.com: Health: Depression: Glossary.* Retrieved from: <http://depression.about.com/od/glossary/g/rationalization.htm>

Smith, E. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2007). *Social psychology*. Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis (UK). Retrieved from: <http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch08-tp-01>.


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