Lately, I’ve been reading Haidt’s The Righteous Mind, one of the many must‍-​reads in the (post‍-​)rationalist realm. I came across a chilling passage where Haidt relays the results of a study which reveals there is generally no relation between intelligence and truth seeking ability. There was, however, a correlation between IQ and rationalization ability. People with higher IQ or education were said to produce more arguments for positions they hold, centribus paribus.

This triggered a very self‍-​conscious realization: that’s exactly what I do. I’ve always been very much a clever arguer, but this (strangely) lead to me thinking the idea is more general. Intelligent people are more likely the make excuses, good excuses, and since we always have the delusion of honesty, we believe in those excuses, and never realize what we’re doing.

I think this can account for a not insignificant portion of ‘akrasia’. Maybe not all of it, or even most, so remember Scott’s advice to reverse any advice you hear; I don’t want someone with some legitimate motivational issues to read this and be extra hard on themselves, thinking they must be lying to themselves or something.

But in case one of my readers (what readers?) is like me, try to notice when you’re just rationalizing a line to convince yourself you don’t have to do some thing, and just do that thing; you provably cannot trust yourself.