I'd agree that poor decision making is definitely a contributing factor in most accidents, Jonkster, which suggests that pilots aren't taught how to make informed decisions in the first place, because instructors don't know how to themselves. From my own experience, fear is used to discourage rational thought processes, so when circumstances are presented that induce fear, it's natural to make poor decisions.
However, wouldn't you agree that the way to better teach pilots to avoid situations requiring the use of superior skills, must include exposure to those situations in a calm, rational manner, rather than trying to scare them out of anything considered risky?
BTW, Airmanship and human factors knowledge make better pilots too, but instructors usually don't know enough about either, which is evidenced by their own example, and their example would have been influenced by their instructors.