Rational vs Emotional Decision Making

Humans are naturally emotional creatures. Yet without the guidance and foresight that arises with using logic and reason, decision making influenced by emotions is often rash and destructive. Using logic and reason allows one to carefully calculate the payoff of each decision, as well as the potential risks involved. This can be applied to various situations in life, whether one is using logic in a game of chess or a financial decision in a business. However, countless instances in history and literature have shown us the effect one’s emotions may have on the ability to make logical decisions, such as the tragic deaths in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet, and Ender from Ender’s Game.
In the play “Romeo and Juliet”, Juliet devises a plan to escape from her friends and family, all of whom did not wish for her to be married to Romeo, by faking her death. However, when Romeo discovers her seemingly lifeless body, he is consumed with grief and commits suicide. When Juliet awakes from her temporary coma, she sees Romeo’s corpse and commits suicide as well, creating a string of tragic deaths all driven by emotion. Had Romeo not been so overcome with grief, he would have been able to be reunited with Juliet, who awakens only moments later. Juliet, waking so soon after Romeo drinks the poison he had bought, could have ran for help in saving Romeo from the poison. Instead, she is overcome with emotion as well and stabs herself, creating more needless bloodshed. Clearly, because the emotions of both Romeo and Juliet clouded their judgment, both died tragic deaths. In fact, the root of this conflict in “Romeo and Juliet” could have been entirely prevented if Romeo and Juliet had been reasonable and moderated their love. Instead, they allow their hormonally charged emotions run wild and agree to marry each other only after 3 days of their first meeting. Had reason and logic prevailed, they both could have carefully resolved the tensions between their families and married each