Are individuals who make decisions solely based on emotion and then justify those decisions using logic after the fact poor decision makers ?

Essay topics:

Are individuals who make decisions solely based on emotion and then justify those decisions using logic after the fact poor decision makers ?

Overall, I agree with the statement presented. Those who make decisions based on emotion and later look to justify those decisions with logic are poor decision makers. Humans are innately emotional creatures and we are wired to respond to certain stimuli and situations with certain negative or positive emotions. But, being ruled by these emotions and failing to engage your other thought faculties when making an important or even mundane decision, represents an immature approach to problem solving and decision making. Humans are capable of using logical reasoning that we develop through our lived experiences and that we sharpen through intellectual learning exercises. When we make a decision, we should engage our logical and emotional brains simultaneously so that we can arrive at the best thought out solution.

Acting solely based off of our emotions is a dangerous pattern of behavior. Firstly, everyone experiences and reacts to emotions differently. No matter which society one is born into, almost all humans live in community with other humans, whether that is in a Democratic society such as the United States, a Communist government like China, or a more traditional tribal based traditional social system like an Amazonian tribe. While all of these societies operate differently, each one has its own set of complex social rules and morals that society members are expected to follow.

We learn how to follow these rules as we mature into adulthood and we emerge as functional members of society who are able to operate in a community where we are discouraged to commit actions that could hurt others or ourselves. If one acts solely based on their emotional impulse at any given moment, they are less likely to consider the societal rules that dictate whether a behavior is acceptable or not. Many might argue that if more people today listened and were in tune with their emotions, we may have a more caring society, I would assert that when we act purely based off of emotion, the resulting action is widely unpredictable and could in fact be harmful. For example, if an extremely empathetic person was driving down the highway and saw a dog that was crossing the street and in harms way, they would experience an emotional response that would make them very fearful for the dog's safety and they may become overwhelmed with sadness thinking of the possibility that the dog could be killed. They would most likely act quickly to save the dog on the highway. While this may seem heroic and caring, if they do not involve their logical reasoning skills, they could fail to remember that the act of stopping suddenly on the highway could cause cars behind them to crash into their vehicle and in turn could cause a large car accident. This accident could result in the lose of human life, which most agree to be more precious than animal life. If someone were to die in an car crash caused by this person while saving the dog, I believe this person would feel even more guilty and sad than they would if only the dog had died while crossing the freeway. Therefore, if they had paused and took a minute to think through the situation logically while responding to the emotional stimulus of seeing the dog alone on the highway, it may have led to a better outcome for everyone in society.

Additionally, I believe that those who seek to justify decisions after they have been made, are inherently poor decision makers. When we make a decision, we should have given it the time and thought power it deserves in the moment before the decision is made. The best time to engage one's emotion and logical reasoning capabilities are during the moments leading up to the decision. When I make a decision that I feel confident about, I rarely look to justify it afterwards, because I know that I have given the decision my all. Oftentimes in a criminal court case, the defendant is not so much proving to the judge that they did not commit a crime, rather they are using the trial to justify their decision or prove that they are in fact innocent because of the circumstances that led them to commit the crime. Obviously this does not apply if the person in fact did not commit the crime, but the need for justification after the decision has been made in the case of a criminal action shows that the defendant in fact did make a poor choice. Perhaps, this poor choice could have been avoided if they had taken more time before the crime to emotionally and logically evaluate their decision.

To re-iterate, I think that we should rely on our emotions and our logical reasoning capabilities to help us arrive at a conclusion when faced with making a decision. We should take advantage of our biologically wired emotional responses, as they often help us determine how we feel about a certain situation. Pairing an emotional response with the logic that we have developed through our life's learning will lead to a better outcome in the end.

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Average: 6.6 (1 vote)
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2019-01-10 pdbyrd 66 view
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Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 409, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun might seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much might', 'a good deal of might'.
Suggestion: Much might; A good deal of might
...hether a behavior is acceptable or not. Many might argue that if more people today listene...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1379, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...accident. This accident could result in the lose of human life, which most agree to be m...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1484, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
... animal life. If someone were to die in an car crash caused by this person while s...
^^
Line 7, column 218, Rule ID: IN_THE_MOMENT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'at the moment' (=currently)?
Suggestion: at the moment
... the time and thought power it deserves in the moment before the decision is made. The best t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 285, Rule ID: ONES[1]
Message: Did you mean 'one's'?
Suggestion: one's
...cision is made. The best time to engage ones emotion and logical reasoning capabilit...
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, if, look, may, so, therefore, while, for example, i feel, i think, in fact, such as

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 26.0 12.9520958084 201% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 30.0 11.1786427146 268% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 34.0 13.6137724551 250% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 102.0 28.8173652695 354% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 102.0 55.5748502994 184% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4112.0 2260.96107784 182% => OK
No of words: 852.0 441.139720559 193% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.82629107981 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.4026881308 4.56307096286 118% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.54279642546 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 375.0 204.123752495 184% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.44014084507 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1341.9 705.55239521 190% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 19.0 4.96107784431 383% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 12.0 2.70958083832 443% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 71.7364047866 57.8364921388 124% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.793103448 119.503703932 119% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.3793103448 23.324526521 126% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.58620689655 5.70786347227 63% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.268178546375 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0875627662808 0.0743258471296 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.126818051269 0.0701772020484 181% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.161820916741 0.128457276422 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.129173518121 0.0628817314937 205% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.0 14.3799401198 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.33 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.39 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 179.0 98.500998004 182% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.