Emotional Reasoning

Emotional reasoning is a cognitive process in which a person concludes that their emotional reaction proves something is true, regardless of contrary evidence, producing what can be called an emotional truth that stands in direct conflict with the actual, perceptual truth. It can generate feelings of anxiety, fear and apprehension in already stressful situations and is often associated with, or triggered by, panic disorder or anxiety disorder; a person might, for example, conclude that a devoted spouse must be unfaithful simply because they feel jealous. Emotional reasoning tends to amplify the effects of other cognitive distortions, as when a student who feels insecure about material they actually understand acts on that insecurity by guessing at test answers, producing the very failure they feared through a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is closely related to motivated reasoning, in which conclusions are reached from bias rather than evidence, and it is treated as a form of cognitive distortion within clinical psychology.