McKinley 1

Westyn McKinley
Professor Nordquist
English Composition I
5 November 2014

Negative Effects from Emotional Decision Making

Everyone has emotions. They are the driving force behind going after what is wanted and
needed. They fuel passion and motivation. Emotions are very important in everyday life;
However, even with all of the positive occurrences that come from emotions, decisions should
not be driven by them because emotions can easily change, emotional decisions lead to negative
consequences, and emotions cause people to overlook the facts.
Emotions can quickly and easily change. The way a person feels at night, can be totally
different than the way they feel in the morning. This is where the phrase you should sleep on it
comes from. Many people find that they have better discernment, and feel happier in the morning
than they do at night. In turn, they will have a better mindset due to the fact that people with
induced positive emotions view the probability of gains more optimistically (Zhao); Whereas at
night, a more pessimistic view can be expected. Emotions will change quickly due to
unpredictable circumstances. For example someone could go home to find that their pet had
passed away, or go to their car to find someone had crashed into it. These events would bring
about negative emotions. Negative emotions cause a narrowing of attention, so one would tend to
dwell on all the bad things that have happened (Resnick). When dwelling on these things, if one
allowed themselves to become depressed, they would start to have a negative self-view (Martin).
Negative self-view is a straight path to bad decisions. On the contrary, one could find the
winning lottery ticket on the ground. These situations would obviously bring about strong

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emotions. Finally, emotions can be based on a persons mood. Everyone has experienced
themselves or another person go from one mood to the next in a matter of hours, or even
minutes. There are many different factors that can cause a persons mood to change. The first
example is small acts of kindness. If someone receives a nice card, they can go from hating the
world, to being extremely happy. Second, environment can influence ones mood. If a person is in
a gloomy place, they themselves may start to feel gloomy. This negative mood enhances
considerable attention to details, causing one to view their circumstances in a pessimistic way
(Chapter). Third, the company in which a person is surrounded can extravagantly enhance
someones mood. When surrounded by positive people, the person will start to feel happy. When
surrounded by negative influences, a person will start to experience negative emotions. All of
these examples of mood changes bring out various emotions. If a person made a decision based
on what emotions they felt in their particular mood, they will have a good chance of regretting it
in a short period of time.
Emotional decisions will lead to negative consequences. For example, an emotional
decision can result in losing a close friend. Emotions are known to cause overreactions.
Overreactions lead to bluntness, which usually result in hurt feelings and anger. Another way a
friend could be lost is by not thinking through what is being said in the heat of the moment. A
small disagreement dealt with in the wrong way can cause a lifetime of regret. Furthermore,
losing a job can also be in the aftermath of acting on emotions. There are going to be times in
every job where smarting off to the boss sounds amazing. If emotions are not controlled, that
would happen very often. Having a bad attitude is also the easy route when an employee and
boss disagree. Harsh words from customers is another incidence in which emotions can be
ignited in the workplace. These events are times in which emotions need to be hidden. In

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addition to the professional aspects of the subject, displays of emotion will also cause
embarrassment. Often times emotions will cause a temporary indifference, when it comes to
publically expressing feelings. They will cause one to tell another person exactly how they feel
without thinking it through. Being completely transparent with emotions will usually make a
person seem heartless, and cause severe regret and embarrassment.
Emotions will cause people to overlook the facts. Voting is a big, and very important
example of this. When someone sees or hears a commercial, the person running will probably
sound amazing. Without looking up the true facts on what the politician stands for, the person is
likely to vote with a happy heart, for the wrong person. Also, a person may only listen to and
understand only one parties side. This results in biased information. Another common
occurrence, is voting for whoever friends or family thinks is the best candidate, without doing
research. Politicians are experts at drawing in the emotions of the people, and winning votes
without revealing their true agenda. Buying a car is another example. Salesmen are trained to
persuade people to buy outside of their budget. The buyers are often way too trusting of the
salesperson, and will not take it upon themselves to research the quality of the car. Furthermore,
additional costs and fees may not be brought to the attention of the buyer, deceiving them into
buying something they cannot afford. Because of the excitement that comes with buying a
vehicle, a person can easily make irrational decisions if not careful. Finally, dating the wrong guy
is an extremely common example of emotional decision making. Firstly emotions will cause a
girl to overlook his faults. Because she likes him so much, she will only focus on the good things
about him. Second, she will ignore key characteristics, and not think about how these things will
affect her down the road. Third, she will base everything on what he says instead of what he

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does. Because of the love that is felt, she will want to completely trust everything he says, even if
his actions suggest otherwise.
Emotions are vital to everyday life. They make us into who we are and shape our
personalities. They are very important, but must be managed. Keeping in mind that emotions can
easily change, emotional decisions lead to negative consequences, and emotions result in
overlooking the facts will contribute to success in all areas of life.

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"Chapter 1: Review of the literature." The influence of emotions on decision-making processs in

management teams. Geneve N.p., 2004. 48-53. Print.
Martin, Paulus P., and Angela Yu. "Emotion and decision-making: affect-driven belief
symptoms in anxiety and depression." Trends in Cognitive Science (2012): 472-476. Web.
28 Oct. 2014.
Resnick, Marc L. "The Effect Of Affect: Decision Making in the Emotional Context of Health
Care." Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care (n.d.): 39-44. Web.
28 Oct. 2014.
Zhao, Jiaying. "The Effects of Induced Positive and Negative Emotions on Risky Decision
Making." (2006): 477-479. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.