[hgibbs]

Very roughly I think you are saying that it is unclear whether rationalists are thinking differently, or whether the think in the same fashion and just think that they think differently?

I suspect their are elements of both: I believe some members of the rationality community do routinely think in a different way to many other people, but I also believe that there is some post hoc rationalisation (as you put it) in the community as well.

[mistermann]

Basically yes. Of course, they do think differently to some degree, but my intuition is that the end result is likely not nearly as impressive as they perceive it to be - post-hoc rationalization (and its various siblings) is a powerful force with substantial cloaking abilities, and while many intelligent people have abstract/academic knowledge of this, really "knowing" it does not come naturally - in fact, the opposite seems to be the case...such is the nature of the evolved human mind.