People have an annoying tendency to hear the word “rationalism” and think “Spock”, despite direct exhortation against that exact interpretation. But I don’t know of any source directly describing a stance toward emotions which rationalists-as-a-group typically do endorse. The goal of this post is to explain such a stance. It's roughly the concept of hangriness, but generalized to other emotions.

That means this post is trying to do two things at once:

Illustrate a certain stance toward emotions, which I definitely take and which I think many people around me also often take. (Most of the post will focus on this part.)
Claim that the stance in question is fairly canonical or standard for rationalists-as-a-group, modulo disclaimers about rationalists never agreeing on anything.

Many people will no doubt disagree that the stance I describe is roughly-canonical among rationalists, and that's a useful valid thing to argue about in [...]

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Outline:

(01:13) Central Example: Hangry

(02:44) The Generalized Hangriness Stance

(03:16) Emotions Make Claims, And Their Claims Can Be True Or False

(06:03) False Claims Still Contain Useful Information (It's Just Not What They Claim)

(08:47) The Generalized Hangriness Stance as Social Tech

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First published:
July 10th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/naAeSkQur8ueCAAfY/generalized-hangriness-a-standard-rationalist-stance-toward

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Generalized Hangriness: A Standard Rationalist Stance Toward Emotions” by johnswentworth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Generalized Hangriness: A Standard Rationalist Stance Toward Emotions” by johnswentworth