points out, the interaction between the limbic system and the cortex is a two-way street. Your limbic system informs your cortex, but your cortex can also control your limbic system.  You can over-ride your limbic system's tendency to let your emotions control your life, but it takes effort. You have to decide to be the one in charge of your emotions, or your emotions will take charge of you. This is where irrational worries come into play. Ropeik uses the example of parents making decisions about whether they should have their children vaccinated against disease. Although parents obviously want to help their children benefit from an intervention that could possibly be life-saving, they also worry about the risks that such vaccinations might present. When they evaluate the risk-benefit ratio, they are swayed into overestimating the risks. Their amygdalas tell them that the chances of developing a serious disease (measles, mumps, whooping cough) are small, so it doesn't "feel" right to put them at risk of potential harm from the vaccination itself. Parents then let this emotional reaction keep them from seeing that, rationally, the reason that the risks are small is because vaccinations have virtually eliminated these diseases from industrialized societies. If no one got vaccines for their children, these diseases would once again run rampant.  In the 1950s, the risks of diseases such as polio were so evident, because they were highly prevalent, that parents didn't even think twice about having their children take the vaccine. Worries in daily