Many years ago, there were a series of articles written by the pseudonym Archibald Putt, collectively referred to as “Putt’s Laws”, that appeared in Research/Development magazine. One law is relevant to the topic at hand.
“Decisions are justified by benefits to the organization; they are made by considering benefits to the decisionmakers.”
If it is easier to lie convincingly when you believe the lie, then rationalization makes perfect sense. One makes a decision based on selfish, primarily unconscious motives, and then comes up with a semi-convincing rationalization for public consumption. “I stole that because I deserved it” would be a classic example of this kind of justification.
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Many years ago, there were a series of articles written by the pseudonym Archibald Putt, collectively referred to as “Putt’s Laws”, that appeared in Research/Development magazine. One law is relevant to the topic at hand.
“Decisions are justified by benefits to the organization; they are made by considering benefits to the decisionmakers.”
If it is easier to lie convincingly when you believe the lie, then rationalization makes perfect sense. One makes a decision based on selfish, primarily unconscious motives, and then comes up with a semi-convincing rationalization for public consumption. “I stole that because I deserved it” would be a classic example of this kind of justification.