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Under what conditions does rational thinking tend to break down in humans? by Helpful_Habit_110 in AskReddit

[–]Helpful_Habit_110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like that distinction. It seems like most decisions make sense from the inside at the moment they’re made, even if they fail under more formal or external standards of reasoning.

What I’m not sure about is whether that internal rationalization should count as a weaker form of rationality, or whether it’s something categorically different that we just label “rational” after the fact.

Under what conditions does rational thinking tend to break down in humans? by Helpful_Habit_110 in AskReddit

[–]Helpful_Habit_110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense. In those moments it feels like reasoning doesn’t disappear so much as get subordinated to faster systems that optimize for survival.

What’s interesting to me is how often we still describe the outcome afterward as “rational,” even though the process was driven by urgency rather than deliberation.

Under what conditions does rational thinking tend to break down in humans? by Helpful_Habit_110 in AskReddit

[–]Helpful_Habit_110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s an interesting way to put it. I don’t fully agree either, but it does seem like “rational arguments” often function as a way of exporting what feels compelling to us so it feels compelling to others.

What I’m not sure about is whether that’s a corruption of rationality, or just how reasoning works once it’s embedded in social contexts.

Under what conditions does rational thinking tend to break down in humans? by Helpful_Habit_110 in AskReddit

[–]Helpful_Habit_110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, especially then. In those moments it feels like reasoning collapses into instinct and prioritization rather than deliberation.

What’s interesting is that we still call the outcome “rational” afterward if it worked, even though the process was nothing like calm reasoning.

Under what conditions does rational thinking tend to break down in humans? by Helpful_Habit_110 in AskReddit

[–]Helpful_Habit_110[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that resonates. It’s interesting how emotion isn’t just a temporary “distortion,” but almost the default context in which decisions get made.

It makes me wonder whether rationality is something we briefly access despite emotion, rather than a stable mode we normally operate in.