Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

The Science of Stress | Emotion Over Logic_ The Key to Decision Making

22 Feb 2025 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:27

This YouTube talk (Aaron Hartman, MD) argues that rational analysis alone is insufficient for action: decision-making requires engagement of the limbic (emotional) system. Hartman uses examples from marketing, consumer purchasing, and acceptance of medical therapy to show that without emotional engagement people will not follow through even when the rational case is strong.

You can think everything through perfectly, line by line by line. But ultimately you have to engage your limbic system, your emotional system before you actually make a decision. And so a lot of times, what's happening when people are making decisions in the marketing world, purchasing world, and also, am I going to do this medical therapy that Dr. Jensky or Dr. Hartman just recommended to me? Unless there's an emotional engagement, no matter how much brain is like, this is a great idea, unless you have that engaged, you actually won't follow through.