Science fiction occasionally writes about super-rational beings [ . . . ] In the absence of that highly desirable but frankly unrealistic capability

The neurologist Antonio Damasio has written of people with frontal-lobe lesions who become unable to engage emotionally with decision-making, and seem therefore to have great difficulty with the process. He argues that normal decision-making is far more dependent on emotional responses than has been supposed.

This doesn't affect your original point, of course - the difference is between a calm but informed choice and an overly-stressed (perhaps even panicked) response.