How Do Emotions Positively and Negatively Influence Critical Thinking?

What are some of your favorite unexpected flavor combos? Peanut butter and pickles? Watermelon and feta? Strawberries and balsamic? Listen guys, don’t knock it until you try it. 

Some of these unexpected flavor combinations might not make sense at first, but when paired together, they can help you see things in a different way. And that’s one of the best ways to approach learning — embrace the unexpected and find your life richer than before.

One of those unexpected “flavor” combinations when it comes to learning may be our critical thinking abilities and emotions. Combining critical thinking skills with emotion may seem like oil and water at first, but it actually mixes much better than that. So, how do emotions positively and negatively influence critical thinking? We’re here to get to the bottom of it with you. 

Rethinking the Role of Emotion in Reasoning

What is critical thinking, and why does it matter so much in education? Critical thinking is the purposeful and analytical thinking, a core part of cognitive skills, used in problem-solving and decision-making. It requires both logical thinking and emotional awareness. Although it may start in the classroom figuring out how to finish a science project, critical thinking is an essential skill that students will need for the rest of their lives. While critical thinking appears to be all reason and logic, there’s more to it. We’re here to bust the myth that emotions are the enemy of reason. They aren’t. Emotions are intertwined with reason.

Recent research reports that positive emotions can have a positive influence on learning. When students experience feelings of self-motivation and satisfaction toward their learning materials, they learn more deeply and have higher academic achievement. Emotional experiences and stimuli are remembered more vividly over time, which could lead to greater memory in academics.

And shouldn’t emotions be part of our everyday decision-making? Think about it: big or small, our decisions rarely come about in an emotion-free void. Choosing a college major, negotiating a contract to reach mutually beneficial agreements, or even deciding whether to hit “reply all” on that email (pro tip: don’t) all involve an element of emotional intelligence and awareness. Emotions help us recognize what holds personal value and stay motivated when the road ahead is uphill. Critical thinking without emotions is like a GPS with no sound. You’ll probably still end up in the right place, but you might miss a few turns. 

So let’s dive in and answer the question: how do emotions positively and negatively influence critical thinking? Together, we’ll explore the effective influence by going over emotional duality, affect heuristics, emotional intelligence, and actionable strategies to enhance reasoning.

The Dual Impact of Emotions on Critical Thinking

How Positive Emotions Enhance Thinking

Positive emotions expand mental flexibility and promote creative problem-solving skills, so students can tackle challenges more effectively. These emotional shifts can have a significant impact on how we reason and solve problems. When students are excited, motivated, or happy about an assignment, that means they’re willing to give more effort and persist if things are tough. That’s where critical thinking comes in, through their willingness to engage. 

Think back to some of your worst college classes (I’m sorry, Chem 101. It’s not you, it’s me). How much effort did you put into those assignments? If you were like me, it probably got to the point where the effort was minimal and full of shortcuts just out of sheer spite. And better yet, I can hardly tell you anything I learned in Chem 101. You will not be catching me in a science classroom again anytime soon.

But as mentioned in that earlier research, positive emotions can improve memory retrieval and broaden students’ attention. If students feel enthusiastic, they’re more likely to remember the activity and the material. And when students get really excited about learning, that also means greater collaboration — seeking out ideas from others and sharing their own.

How Negative Emotions Sharpen—or Impair—Thinking

Now negative emotions are a double-edged sword. They can sharpen critical thinking, perhaps by giving students greater attention to detail, increasing caution, or promoting skepticism. These can all be positive traits that help students make sound judgments or sidestep cognitive bias.

However, the negative emotions, of course, can also have a negative influence, impairing judgment through heightened feelings of anxiety, fear, and tunnel vision. This is part of what psychologists call “affective phenomena,” emotions that actively shape thought. For example, when someone becomes extremely angry, it can cause some impulsive reasoning. If a student feels angry towards another classmate, they might launch their pencil across the room like a javelin in the Olympics. When faced with fear, we might unrealistically magnify risks.

Psychological Mechanisms & Cognitive Shortcuts

The best way to understand how emotions and logic work together is to understand some of the mechanisms and cognitive shortcuts that work when we rely on emotion.

Affect Heuristic

Affect heuristic refers to how humans often rely on emotions and not always logic while making decisions. Especially under pressure, it’s natural for us to rely on what we’re feeling rather than thinking. There are positives and negatives here: emotions can help us to reach conclusions quickly and easily, but they can also distort thinking if we’re not careful.

Negativity Bias

Negativity bias is our tendency to prioritize and store negative information and experiences rather than positive ones. The human brain tends to give more weight to negative input, just like how you tend to dwell on that one passive-aggressive Facebook comment from your middle school nemesis (it’s time to move on). When it comes to decision-making, though, this negativity bias can cause us to skew analysis and overemphasize risk.

Hot vs Cold Cognition

Katy Perry said it best: “You’re hot, then you’re cold. You’re yes, then you’re no. You’re in, then you’re out.” Finding the balance between the emotional and the rational thinking can feel like you’re getting whiplash. The key is understanding the differences between hot and cold cognition.

“Hot” cognition is our emotionally charged thinking. This often comes into play in situations that are considered high-risk, high-reward. “Cold” cognition is our neutral, rational processing. This is used more often for tasks like scheduling and evaluating approaches to a problem. Both hot and cold cognition have their place, but the key is knowing in what context to use which. They are essential cognitive processes that contribute to balanced reasoning. 

Emotional Intelligence: The Bridge Between Feeling and Thinking

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate emotions in yourself and others. Higher EI correlates with improved decision-making, reduced bias, and better leadership. So what are some of the best ways to get students to develop such a valuable skill?

There are three core techniques to practice for yourself and your students that will up the EI. First, comes emotion labeling. This is a big step towards helping students understand what’s going on inside their heads, and not just the aftereffects of it. For example, rather than saying, “I’m feeling ‘off’” you may say, “I feel frustrated.” Help students learn to name and understand their emotions through activities like reflective journaling after a difficult activity or checking in on an emotions board at the beginning or end of each day.

Another core skill is teaching students to pause. Pausing before a reaction is critical to finding a balance between hot and cold cognition. For younger learners, teach them the stoplight strategy. Whenever they feel an intense emotion, they should first engage the red light: stop and take a breath. Next comes the yellow light: think about what happened and possible ways to respond. Lastly, is green for go, meaning students can act on a response that is kind and helpful. Consider even giving students practice scenarios so they can walk through each step.

Lastly, students need to learn to reframe emotional cues as data, not distractions. Emotions are signals, just like notifications on a phone. They let you know that something is going on, but you get to choose what to do with that information. The goal is to help students notice, name, and interpret emotional cues before responding.

How Emotions Affect Cognitive Control & Information Processing

It’s clear by now that there are ups and downs to emotions, but cognitive control helps manage these shifts. 

Positive moods encourage global thinking, meaning we see the big picture. Negative moods can even be helpful. Those negative emotions can promote local, detail-specific focus, but without balance, they may also amplify cognitive biases. This greater attention to detail can be helpful when trying to detect errors.

But it does not need to be all or nothing all the time. Regardless of the pros and cons of positive and negative emotions, striving for emotional regulation is still key. Emotional regulation supports better working memory, improved attention, and leads to fewer distortions from confirmation bias. All of those qualities combined create a top-notch thinker with effective critical thinking skills.

Individual Differences in Emotional-Cognitive Interactions

There are a lot of factors that influence our susceptibility. Our personality traits alone make a huge difference. Neuroticism (a trait causing people to see more negative things in the world) might cause someone to be less susceptible compared to a person who is more open. Neither one is necessarily right or wrong, but it just means knowing in which context to apply these traits.

Cognitive style and emotional reactivity also affect someone’s susceptibility. Analytical versus intuitive people might rely on their emotions or logic differently to make sound decisions. Similarly, people with high versus low emotional reactivity may approach decision-making in different ways.

Some people benefit from emotional input in reasoning — others may be more prone to distortion. To help students find that healthy balance, it’s all about practice.

Practical Strategies to Balance Emotion and Logic

1. Build Emotional Awareness

Teach students how to track mood patterns and recognize their emotional state before making decisions. This could be in an emotions journal, a dedicated reflection time, or even simple one-on-one check-ins.

2. Pause & Reflect

Create a buffer between emotion and action, especially in high-stakes moments. Think back to the stoplight method. Stop, think, consider, then choose the best course of action.

3. Leverage the Right Emotion for the Task

Use joy and optimism for brainstorming; use mild skepticism for quality control or risk assessment. Showing students the benefits of a range of emotions will teach them to face what they’re feeling, not run away from it.

4. Train Emotional Intelligence Daily

Journaling, morning check-ins, mindfulness, and structured self-reflection are private, low-stakes moments that give students the opportunity to pause and think.

Turn Emotional Awareness Into Smarter Action

Emotions don’t hinder critical thinking—they shape it. With awareness and skill, emotions become tools for better decisions.

Balance is essential. Positive emotions fuel creativity; negative ones sharpen caution. Meanwhile, emotional intelligence strengthens your ability to think clearly under pressure. Use simple strategies to train awareness and control over your emotional influences.

 Knowing how emotions impact your thinking is the first step, but using that insight consistently is where the real change happens.

Mission.io helps students recognize patterns, reduce bias, and bring clarity to every decision. Start your free trial today and integrate emotional intelligence into your daily classroom activities.