Emotion and Reason

Emotions are seen everywhere and can be seen all the time. They may not always be shown in people’s faces, but they can most definitely be seen in people’s actions. Emotions are an integral part of everybody’s lives and can make them or break them. Though emotions are a beautiful aspect of life, they too have their downsides. Emotions can change people in an instant, sometimes even clouding their ability to judge.

Decisions are made every day. These can be made based on logic, emotion or sometimes both. The Atlantic magazine posted an article on how emotions affect our decision making skills. As human beings, our thoughts are driven by our emotions and vice versa. Depending on the situation one is in, or the thoughts they have, their decisions can be affected greatly. The article states that research suggests happiness is not the best mindset to be in whilst making life-changing and important decision. For example, leaving your job to go and chase your lifelong dream may not always be practical and logical even it makes you happy. One has to assess the risks before making hard decisions not allowing emotion to cloud their judgement and making sure sentiment does not get in the way of reason. Most people would assume that happiness is the best headspace to be in whilst making decisions, however, research suggest that this isn’t the case. For example, an interviewer interviewing a potential employee may not perform their job as seriously as they should be if in a happy mood and sometimes may even give jobs to potential employees regardless of whether or not the person is fully qualified to take on the responsibility. Though this is not a situation that occurs on a regular basis, it can be a possibility. On the other hand, being angry whilst making decisions is not a good thing either. Angry decisions are often impulsive and irrational and your judgement is not up to the mark. The article says that this behaviour dates back to the prehistoric times where people were hunter-gatherers and their survival relied on their instinctive decision making. Where one would not think for prolonged periods of time, but would make decisions impulsively.The article also states that the feeling of anger simplifies one’s thinking and does not allow them to form proper conclusions. This anger can sometimes stem from the feeling of fear. An example of this is the ongoing crisis between the IS and the rest of the world. People draw fear from the information provided by the media which lead to incomplete and irrational thoughts which eventually can lead to anger and impulsive actions. The article suggests that this was recently seen in the 2016 presidential elections in which Donald Trump was elected because he vowed to “ban most foreign muslims from entering the United States of America.” The fear and angst created in the people allowed them to simplify their thinking and provoked them to think irrationally, asking for the ban of