Before responding to a persuasive request, check whether you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, because each of those states is a known lever for manipulation and a reason to defer.

How to do it

1. 1Run the four questions literally: When did I last eat? Am I angry at someone right now? Have I spoken to anyone I trust today? How much did I sleep?
2. 2If two or more are true, do not make the decision now. Say you will respond later and give a time.
3. 3Fix the cheapest one first: eat, take a walk, call a friend, or sleep. Then re-read the request.
4. 4Ask whether the request arrived when it did because the sender knew you were in that state (late-night messages, pitches after a funeral, attention aimed at lonely people).
5. 5Keep a note of which state you were in when you made a decision you regret; the pattern is personal and useful.

When to use it

• •Late-night purchases, messages, and arguments.
• •Any request that arrives during grief, a breakup, a move, a job loss, or illness.
• •Recruitment or sales environments that run long sessions without breaks or food.

Counters

Evidence and how strong it is

HALT comes from twelve-step recovery culture and is folk practice, not a validated instrument. The individual states are well studied: sleep deprivation impairs attention, working memory, and risk assessment (Killgore 2010); low blood glucose was associated with greater aggression toward spouses in one well-known study (Bushman et al. 2014), although the broader "ego depletion" literature that this was linked to largely failed a multi-lab replication (Hagger et al. 2016); loneliness is associated with heightened threat vigilance and social-cognitive deficits (Cacioppo & Hawkley 2009); and high-control groups deliberately use fatigue and disrupted meals in recruitment (Singer 1995). Evidence strength: the checklist is a mnemonic; the underlying vulnerabilities range from strong (sleep) to contested (glucose and willpower).

1. Killgore, W. D. S. (2010). Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition. Progress in Brain Research, 185, 105-129
   Review of the cognitive deficits (attention, working memory, risk judgment) produced by sleep loss.
2. Bushman, B. J., DeWall, C. N., Pond, R. S., & Hanus, M. D. (2014). Low Glucose Relates to Greater Aggression in Married Couples. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(17), 6254-6257 · link
   The association between low blood glucose and aggression that underlies the "hungry" item.
3. Hagger, M. S., Chatzisarantis, N. L. D., et al. (2016). A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(4), 546-573
   The failed replication that limits how much weight the glucose-willpower story can bear.
4. Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009). Perceived Social Isolation and Cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(10), 447-454 · link
   Evidence that loneliness alters threat perception and social cognition, the basis of the "lonely" item.
5. Singer, M. T. (1995). Cults in Our Midst. Jossey-Bass
   Clinical description of fatigue and disrupted routines as deliberate conditions of high-control recruitment.