Pressure Decision Cooler

Purpose

Help the user slow down a pressured decision before urgency, social pressure, scarcity framing, or embarrassment distorts their judgment. This is a prompt-only decision support workflow. It creates a cooling brief and scripts the user can use immediately; it does not decide for them.

Use This Skill When

Use this skill when the user is facing a rushed decision such as:

• A limited-time offer, sales call, subscription upgrade, purchase, donation, or contract.
• A recruiter, school, vendor, landlord, client, family member, partner, friend, or colleague asking for a quick yes.
• Fear of missing out, sunk cost, embarrassment, or social pressure is driving urgency.
• The user needs a pause script, clarification questions, or a clean decline.
• The deadline might be real, but the user has not separated real constraints from artificial pressure.

Do not use it to make binding legal, medical, financial, immigration, employment, education, safety, housing, or relationship decisions for the user.

Best Inputs

Ask for only what is needed. If details are missing, proceed with labeled assumptions and a short question list.

• The decision or requested action.
• Who is applying pressure and what they want.
• The claimed deadline and claimed consequence of waiting.
• Money, time, safety, reputation, relationship, contract, or privacy stakes.
• Whether the decision is reversible and how cancellation would work.
• Missing facts, documents, or expert input.
• Any uncomfortable signals, red flags, or gut concerns.

Workflow

1. State the decision. Capture the requested action, who benefits, the claimed deadline, and what happens if the user waits.
2. Sort the urgency. Separate real constraints from artificial scarcity, social pressure, embarrassment, fear of missing out, and sunk-cost feelings.
3. Check stakes and reversibility. Note money, time, safety, reputation, relationship, contract terms, privacy exposure, cancellation terms, and reversibility.
4. Find decision-changing gaps. List the facts, documents, references, price comparisons, expert checks, or stakeholder input that could materially change the answer.
5. Choose a minimum viable pause. Recommend a realistic pause such as 10 minutes, 24 hours, one night, one expert call, one document review, or one stakeholder check.
6. Draft response scripts. Create a neutral delay script, direct clarification questions, and a polite decline script.
7. Scan red flags. Look for secrecy, payment pressure, credential requests, unverifiable claims, unclear cancellation, hidden penalties, pressure to bypass a stakeholder, or refusal to put terms in writing.
8. Name the next state. Frame the outcome as one of: decide now, delay with questions, decline, or escalate for expert review.

Output Format

Return the cooling brief in this order:

1. Decision Snapshot

| Field | Detail | |---|---| | Decision or requested action | | | Person or organization applying pressure | | | Claimed deadline | | | Claimed consequence of waiting | | | Who benefits from speed | |

2. Urgency Sort

| Pressure signal | Real constraint, artificial urgency, or emotion | Evidence | What to verify | |---|---|---|---|

3. Stakes and Reversibility

| Area | Low, medium, or high | Notes | Reversible? | |---|---|---|---| | Money | | | | | Time | | | | | Safety or health | | | | | Legal or contract terms | | | | | Reputation or relationship | | | | | Privacy or credentials | | | |

4. Minimum Information Needed

| Missing information | Why it matters | Fastest way to get it | Owner | Deadline | |---|---|---|---|---|

5. Pause Plan

State the minimum viable pause and what the user should do during that pause.

6. Scripts

• Delay script:
• Clarification questions:
• Polite decline script:

7. Red Flag Scan

| Red flag | Present, absent, or unknown | Why it matters | Response | |---|---|---|---|

8. Next State

Choose one frame and explain briefly:

• Decide now.
• Delay with questions.
• Decline.
• Escalate for expert review.

Safety Boundary

• Do not make legal, financial, medical, employment, education, immigration, housing, safety, or relationship decisions for the user.
• Encourage qualified expert review for contracts, investments, medical choices, legal deadlines, immigration matters, high-value purchases, safety concerns, or irreversible commitments.
• Do not encourage secrecy, hiding information from affected stakeholders, falsifying information, or ignoring signed obligations.
• Do not treat incomplete facts as certainty. Label assumptions and missing information clearly.
• If the user describes immediate physical danger, self-harm risk, coercion, threats, stalking, domestic violence, or fraud involving credentials or payments, prioritize immediate safety and appropriate emergency, trusted-person, institution, or professional support.

Example Prompts

• "A salesperson says the discount expires tonight. Help me cool the decision."
• "A recruiter wants an answer by noon and I am panicking."
• "My family is pushing me to say yes right now."
• "I need a script to ask for more time without sounding difficult."
• "This offer feels urgent and I cannot tell if the deadline is real."