Rationalization

Bob Seger in “Lock and Load” sings “I wish I had a nickel for every time I fell and blamed somebody else.”

The human tendency to be defensive, to protect the image of competence we would like to project to the world, leads us to give reasons for our behavior that make us look good. The self-enhancement bias is one way to study this phenomenon. In most walks of life we maintain a public image of being far better than average in whatever we choose to do.

One warning for critical thinkers when listening to the arguments of others should be: is the person putting forth the argument working extra hard to provide reasons that are consistent with our thinking more positively about the person making the argument? While there is certainly no good reason why such a reason is not a strong one, it needs to be consumed with special care because we know how tempting it is for any of us to destroy evidence and reasons to build up ourselves in the eyes of others.

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I cannot leave this lyric without pointing out that any wisdom it contains is modified by our wariness that part of American Exceptionalism is blaming individuals for what has complex social causation. In other words, Seger may be too harsh on himself in certain instances. When he says for mistakes I have made, he may well be absorbing responsibility in some instances where major elements of the responsibility are outside his control.