This goes for the majority of daily decisions, are you more likely to follow your head or your heart? Do you find hormones/cycle heavily impact emotion vs logic?
How do you weigh emotion vs logic in decision making?
r/AskWomen
This goes for the majority of daily decisions, are you more likely to follow your head or your heart? Do you find hormones/cycle heavily impact emotion vs logic?
Comments
I’ll get emotional in my mind, hold off on making any decisions right then and there. Take a step back and look at the situation subjectively and then make a decision based on logic.
Its easy to let emotions get the better of you in a situation. Someone says something or does something, you take it personally. Its easy to fly off the handle. But you gotta take a moment, calm down, think about it, then act on it after doing some thinking of what the next steps are.
The key is developing a good enough poker face where if something happens, you don’t have an immediate reaction and you have time to think about it.
I have endometriosis and some mental health issues so my hormones HEAVILY impact my mindset. Im also pretty young and very sensitive so I always end up listening to my heart. Sadly it typically ends up with me getting hurt or used so I am hoping to get better at thinking with my head lol.
The biggest emotion that guides me is guilt. If I feel like I haven’t been fair to other people, I feel so awful about it. This kind of helps me act more logically because instead of only basing my decision on my own emotions about a situation, I’m constantly considering how it’ll also affect other people. It usually results in me working through some kind of reasoning to figure out a decision that is a net positive for everyone involved.
If it’s only myself who is affected by a decision, I’ll usually go heart before head, but it’s okay because nobody else is going to get hurt if I decide to do something irrational.
They aren’t mutually exclusive. My logic and emotions aren’t in conflict, they inform each other. If a decision feels wrong without making logical sense, it tells me I need to step back and reflect on that which usually leads to being more thoughtful in my decision making.
I weigh everything with Morals. Emotions and logic are useless when avoiding morality of an issue.
Head. Living on emotions is how you live in drama. But then again some love it.
I think it’s fine to take emotion into account, as in considering what makes you happy and what doesn’t, but I don’t react or make decisions make based on emotion. I think that making decisions based on emotion and not logic, at least for important stuff, is a horrible idea and I would never do it. If it’s something minor, like, I am tired and want ice cream tonight even though I’m trying to eat healthier, that’s one thing. But reacting emotionally and illogically without seeing the consequences of decisions is what teenagers do. Adults should ideally have the ability to exercise good judgement and consider the consequences of actions. If you aren’t logically weighing the likely consequences of a decision and taking that into account you’re going to make bad decisions. You can always take the emotional impact in you into account in a logical way but that’s different from making a bad decision based on emotion or impulse, which I don’t do.
I recognize that I’m in the minority in operating this way, but I can see that while I guess it is boring, my life has turned out pretty well, there’s rarely any drama, and my life is just steady and peaceful, to the extent I can control that. I’m not saying everything has turned out perfectly, but I don’t have any serious mistakes or regrets, either, because most of those come from illogical decisions and not thinking through what is going to happen, from what I’ve seen.
Honestly, I draft a logical plan, then immediately let my emotions hijack it like a soap opera. I try to balance both, but let’s just say my heart often wins—especially if snacks or nostalgia are involved.
As other people have said, logic and emotion inform each other. It’s not logical to make a decision that’s going to make me miserable. And it’s not gonna feel good to make a decision that I know is terrible idea.
Honor the emotion, consider logic and then decide. Mommy hormones don’t affect my logic, because I know my cycle, and take care of myself when I need to. Emotions are felt not acted on, luteal phase means take a nap not push through and then not have the capacity to be around other people.
I will add though there are a lot of emotionally immature logical people who use logic to justify their emotional choices.
I prefer logic.
Then I go into overthinking overdrive, get anxious and worry about basically everything in pure fatalism, until my (also very logical) husband builds me up again with his optimism.
Why would emotion factor in at all?
It really depends on the kind of decision. Most are best taken with a combination of both. For example, deciding what dress to buy is going to be about both how it makes me feel when I wear it as well as logical thinking about the price, suitability, how easy it is to wash, how often I think I’d be wear it etc. Even a larger decision like deciding whether to take a job or buy a particular house, I go off both my feelings and a logical assessment of the situation.
I acknowledge my emotions are valid, but I do try to think of the bigger picture and realize most situations are not all about me and what I want so I have to think logically about the best way to handle whatever the obstacle is that keeps me happy, and whoever/whatever else involved content too
I try to lead with logic but if my emotions are strong, they usually win. And yeah, hormones definitely mess with that balance sometimes.
i always take both in account most of the time. some decisions require more logic some need more emotion. i think it’s situational. my cycle has 0 impact in my decisions. i try to view everything from an outside perspective anyways
I think it’s important to balance head and heart in decision making. After all, it’s your heart that that tells you what makes you happy. But it‘s so important not to let your heart *rule* your head – for example, it’s crucial not to spend beyond your means.
Technically, you’re supposed to lead with your heart, then use logic to fine tune your decisions. Its the key to having a happy passionate life in general.
You want something, go try it, go experiment as long as it doesnt impede on mental/physical health. Jobs, lovers, image, hobbies, spirituality, etc.
If a decision you made isnt working out logically, thats when you pull back and pivot to something else.
Heart keeps you happy. Logic keeps you safe. Both should be used in all decisions. If you neglect your heart, you end up living life in autopilot unhappy. If you neglect logic, you leave your heart vulnerable to unnecessary risks. So its important to have that balance.
Being diagnosed with ADHD/ ASD at the age of 30, my decision making is 10x harder and I have to be that much more intentional. For big stuff-I started carrying around a picture of myself when I was 3. Whatever I choose to do, it’s in “her” best interest. She’ll be safe, she’ll have fun, she’ll feel good about whatever it is. I’m impulsive and have ended up in some wild situations. Heart has won, head has won, when I’m intentional and find balance with the two- I feel better about my choice overall. Also anything that “doesn’t make sense” to me automatically infuriates me, so I have a “I’ll knock all this shit over” internal compass that’s exhausting lol.
Logic always comes first. I can’t lie to myself and I can’t deny logic, no matter how much I might want to emotionally.
Emotions are not smart.
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