[BeetleB]

> We do many things based entirely on intuition, and then afterward gin up a reason for having done them

This is much better covered in Haidt's "The Righteous Mind". He goes into detail on when this happens and when it doesn't.

What studies have shown (and jives well with my experience): For topics you believe involve morality, this is precisely what happens: You make the decision, and the rationale follows. It happens so fast even you believe the rationale comes first.

One of the ways they tested it was by showing that moral decisions tend to have no cognitive load. If you ask someone something that requires cognitive load (e.g. analyzing some data), they slow down significantly while multitasking with trivial activities (e.g. putting lots of food in an organized way in the fridge). But when posed with issues of morality, they show no slowdown.

[kbelder]

Or, issues of morality are mostly trivial.