ABSTRACT
A long tradition of folk wisdom assumes that emotions make for bad deci-sions. Being emotionally upset, in particular, is seen as causing people to do foolish, irrational things that they will likely regret later on. The legal system has accepted this view as valid, to the extent that crimes committed in the heat of passion are punished less severely than others (Averill, 1982). Even psy-chological research has provided some evidence that emotional states can cause people to make choices that lead to irrational or self-destructive outcomes (e.g., Leith & Baumeister, 1996).
