ABSTRACT
Like all of us, political leaders and elites have their cognitive economies of information and emotion. How do we make sense of the overload of information and emotions when a decision is required? Social scientifi c theory offers some cues on how to overcome the limitations and how this may work. Political leaders are supposed to make decisions at all times, but we talk about conditions of (extremely) complex and diffi cult decision-making, which either easily evolve into crisis or are due to crisis (e.g. Dyson and ‘t Hart, 2013). Think of societies in transition such as the EU, Russia and Ukraine – situations with a creeping institutional (political, economic) crisis, or an acute situational crisis (terrorist attack, natural disaster). The refugee crisis in the EU and Turkey (caused by the Syrian civil war), the Greek debt crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris are examples. EU leaders and member states should make decisions and communicate with each other and third parties, as well as with their citizens.
