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Richie Pearcy

Mr. Walters

AP English III

24 October 2017

Consequences of Illogical Decision-Making

The 1953 play, “The Crucible”, was written by Arthur Miller and is centered upon the

Salem Witch Trials of the 17th century that occurred in colonial Massachusetts. The play is

composed by Miller to serve as an allegory to the ongoing accusing and questioning of

Hollywood and American citizens about being communists or being involved with communists

by the United States government. The actions of the United States government during the 1950s

were a result of the “Red Scare,” where many Americans feared Soviet Union sympathizers and

communists were within America intending to do great harm to the country. Arthur Miller

constructs “The Crucible” as an allegory to these events through the Salem Witch Trials on a

surface level to highlight the senselessness and illogical thinking that was commonplace in the

American government during the time period. However, “The Crucible” is also composed to take

stances on numerous other themes that apply to the real world and historically. “The Crucible”

text, modern day issues, and historical events demonstrate that because people tend to make

decisions based off of emotions and surface level observations, society has a responsibility to

think logically rather than emotionally--especially when it comes to politics--since failure to

think logically leads to highly undesirable consequences.

According to “Emotion and Decision Making”, composed by Jennifer S. Lerner of

Harvard University and others, “...research reveals that emotions constitute powerful, pervasive,

and predictable drivers of decision making.” (Lerner et al.). This text shows that it is natural for
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emotion to play a big factor in human decision making. This emotion-based thinking is

expressed throughout the text of “The Crucible”, and leads to a number of negative

consequences for the characters and the town of Salem. After Abigail Williams and the fellow

girls that are accusing members of the town of being witches indict Mary Warren of witching

them, Mary gives a series of statements filled with regret about her innocence and how John

Proctor has forcefully controlled her to conspire against the court and the girls. Her speech

causes Thomas Danforth--the head of the court--to immediately assume John Proctor is guilty of

colluding with the devil and bidding the devil’s work, “ ...Will you confess yourself befouled

with hell, or do you keep that black allegiance yet? What say you?” (Miller 74). This decision by

Danforth to assume Proctor guilty based off the emotion compelled into him after Mary

Warren’s weeping and mad accusations of Proctor of holding her to do the devil’s work without

thinking logically about the situation causes the imprisonment and eventually death of the

innocent John Proctor. Instead of immediately coming to the conclusion of Proctor’s guiltiness

due to the emotion that consumed him from Mary Warren’s tirade, Thomas Danforth has the

responsibility to respond to the situation by thinking more logically and to not be overcome with

emotion--perhaps questioning things such as to why Mary Warren would accuse Proctor of these

crimes now when she is being accused of witchcraft--by allowing Proctor to explain his side of

the story without pre-determining his guilt. While some may hold the belief that emotion should

play the biggest part in our thinking or decision-making, this is incorrect. Logical thinking is

based off evidence and reasoning; emotion is a lot more subjective. This proves that emotion is a

lot less reliable in terms of helping us to make the right decision. By restricting our heavy usage

of emotion in our decision-making and basing our decisions on logic, we can prevent undesirable

consequences such as an innocent human being--like John Proctor--being locked and up killed.
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In a historical context, emotion-based thinking has led to numerous conflicts and

repercussions that have impacted the lives of many humans. According to a telephone survey

conducted by the states of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey after the events of 9/11, 48%

of the respondents “...reported that they experienced anger after the attacks.” (“Psychological and

Emotional Effects of the September 11 Attacks on the World Trade Center”). The nation as a

whole was ravaged by the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th, 2001. The emotions

Americans felt during and after the attacks influenced their decision-making heavily and resulted

in a number of consequences. The emotion of anger that Americans felt after the attacks led to

many making the decision of having prejudice against those who are from where the 9/11

terrorists originated. It also caused countless Americans to view Islam--the religion of the

attackers--as a religion that supports these types of terrorist acts. These notions lead further to

the prejudice and backwards thinking of Americans and others across the world that Islamic

people are bad or evil. Gallup News found that Islamophobia increased after 9/11, and noted that

the Runnymede Trust found that 9/11 caused a more difficult life for Muslims living in Britain

due to Islamophobia and other beliefs held by numerous British people. While it is true that the

kind of decision-making seen in many Americans after 9/11 did help lead to positive outcomes

such as the implementation of rules that made air travel safer, this consequence was more a result

of logical thinking: changing the rules that allowed the 9/11 terrorists to get on and take over the

planes would logically help to prevent another event like this from happening again. The

Islamophobia and other thoughts observed in the world after the 9/11 attacks due to a lack of

logical decision-making shows why it is the responsibility of all of society to think and form

decisions logically while restricting the use of emotion in these actions; this change will help

prevent things such as Islamophobia from occurring.

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The theme from “The Crucible” of making political decisions--or just decisions in

general--based off emotion applies to the modern case of the Duke University lacrosse players

and the allegations being made about them sexually assaulting a female. In 2006, a group of

lacrosse players for Duke University was accused of sexually assaulting a girl named Crystal

Mangum. Throughout society, many believe that men are more powerful and strong than men.

According to a study done across multiple countries where researchers asked 10-14 year old

children questions regarding genders, they found that “...children at a very early age...quickly

internalize this myth that girls are vulnerable and boys are strong and independent.” (Luscombe).

These generalizations of genders in society help to inspire more emotion when guys are accused

of taking advantage of the more “vulnerable” or “weaker” girls; this held true for the Duke

University lacrosse players. There was immediate backlash to the group of college students and

their assumed actions due to the lack of logical reasoning in many Americans; this led to the

filing of sexual assault charges against the players and their removal from their university

lacrosse team. This emotion-based thought process that lacked logical thinking resulted in the

ruined lives of the players who turned out to be innocent; the case would be thrown out and the

men were never charged. If people had restricted the use of emotion in their decision-making and

thought more logically, they would've focused more on the evidence that would prove or not

prove the innocence of Duke lacrosse players. This in turn would have prevented or limited the

extreme situations the players faced: they would have never been predetermined to be guilty by

many in the public. This shift would have potentially prevented them from being removed from

the lacrosse team or ever being charged with a crime. Even though some might say that there was

enough evidence for the men to be charged with a crime anyways, the public not relying as much

on emotion as logic would not of tainted the lacrosse players’ reputation as much as it did. As
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well, the lessening of the outcry against the players could have saved them from being removed

from the lacrosse team.

In conclusion, making decisions less influenced by logic and more impacted by emotion

leads to an abundant number of wide-ranging unfavorable consequences for people or groups of

people in literature, history, and modern times. It is the responsibility of all humans in society to

think more logically and rely less on the use of emotions and surface level conclusions when

making decisions of any kind. If all humans made decisions based more on logic and not

subjectiveness, then there would be a lot less innocent people being harmed or damaged

throughout the world.

Works Cited

“Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West.” Gallup News, Gallup, Inc.

Lerner, Jennifer S. Emotion and Decision Making.” Scholars at Harvard, Annual Review of

Psychology, 16 June 2014.

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Luscombe, Belinda. “Gender Stereotypes: Kids Believe Them By Age 10.” Time , Time Inc. , 20

Sept. 2017.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Dramatists Play Service, 1982.

“Psychological and Emotional Effects of the September 11 Attacks on the World Trade Center.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

6 Sept. 2002.