Critical thinking and emotional thinking are both methods of making decisions. When people engage in critical thinking, they rationally weigh the benefits and weaknesses of choices, allowing them to make an informed decision, likely choosing the option that will prove most beneficial. When people engage in emotional thinking, they act according to how each option makes them feel, allowing their emotions to reign almost entirely over their decision-making. While these two types of thinking are largely different, it is difficult to separate them entirely when engaged in the decision-making process.
While people may engage in critical thinking as they work through a problem, often the final decision is based largely upon emotions. For example, if a soon-to-be college student is trying to select a university, he may move through the process of learning about all prospective institutions quite clinically, studying each school in detail. However, the ultimate choice will likely come down, at least in large part, to emotional factors such as how comfortable he feels in each environment and who he may know at each school.
This strength of emotion in decision-making is difficult to overcome because it is instinctive. Just as the fight-or-flight reflex leads to physiological responses within individuals who are faced with danger, including an increase in heart rate and rate of breathing, emotional responses sometimes naturally override rationality when the time to make a decision has arrived.
People can't simply try to forget about their emotions if they want to make decisions more rationally. Instead, they must carefully consider their emotions and the impact they could be having upon the choices they make. When nearing the end of the critical thinking process and preparing to make an ultimate decision, people should consider how they feel about the potential choices, asking themselves what their emotions may be telling them and why. This will enable them to more easily divorce themselves from these emotions, and give them a better understanding of what emotions are in play.