Y ken
It is easy to make sound and carefully considered decisions from the safety of the chair behind one's desk or from the comfort of a crewroom somewhere. As I said earlier, many people have gone to meet their maker on foot of decisions their colleagues would say was not in keeping or out of character. There is never any way of knowing quite why they elected to do what they did.
Shawn asked about training for such situations and, despite many briefings and discussions and even a bit of role-play if you could gather a few willing subjects, it isn't possible in my view, to prepare for these situations other than to be clear in your own mind as to what it is you will or will not do. In my short time as an instructor, I encouraged students to ask themselves a question before deciding on a particular course of action - "How would this look in any post-accident analysis?" If the answer was not good, then don't do it.
The problem remains, however, is that ultimately, as I said already, you have to stand completely alone and announce your position to those who will not be pleased to hear it.
Failing in professional duty may sound nice but it won't carrry any weight standing in a field on a mucky day faced with passengers who aren't going to be going home quite when they expected.
Ultimately, the difference between the amateur and the pofessional is that the professional is lucky enough to get paid for doing something where the amateur cannot. The decision-making ability rests entirely with the individual, whether a paid professional or not.
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