# rationalization (backfill)

a cause made after the act so that the act reads as inside the self-model's window, a story that edits the event rather than the model.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: psychology

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self.personal), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [cause](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason), [make](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-make.verb), [act](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-act.deed), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [inside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-inside.spatial), [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [story](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-story.narrative), [edit](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-edit.process), [event](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-event.occurrence), [rather](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-rather.comparative), [time](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-time.dimension)

**Through:** After the act has happened, a cause is constructed that places it inside the self-model's window, so the event is rewritten to fit the model instead of the model updating to fit the event.

**Novel properties:**
- after-the-fact causation
- event edited to fit
- update-proof self-model

## Examples
- Split-brain patients whose right hemisphere triggered an action immediately produce a fluent verbal reason invented by the left. *(neuroscience)*
- After buying the more expensive option, shoppers rate the rejected alternative lower than they rated it before choosing. *(psychology)*
- A postmortem written to protect the roadmap concludes that the outage validated the team's architecture decisions. *(engineering)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-rationalization.backfill*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-rationalization.backfill.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*