That's exactly it; we like to pretend we're some advanced computational AI operating on pure rationality, but we're actually a bag of meat with an inferiority complex. And much of the "unreasonable rules" of society are built around exactly that, and if we abandon those we often have to relearn them again and again.

Recognizing they exist can allow "the boss" to cut the issue short with a "I need to think about this" and de-escalate that way.