"Dad is hangry again!"

It is a well-known fact in the Wheeler family.  Dad gets hangry.  According to Merriam-Webster, "hangry" is a "clever portmanteau of hungry and angry."  It's an adjective describing a mood that we all get when we don't get enough to eat.  It's one of those words that hasn't been around for all that long (apparently it was first used in The London Magazine in 1992), but it has gained widespread popularity because it is a great description of a very common feeling that we all get.

It really all comes down to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  We simply cannot attend to our psychological needs (e.g., creating friendships and feeling accomplished) or our self-fulfillment needs (e.g., realizing our full potential or being creative) without first attending to our basic physiological needs, such as food and water: 



Maslow's Hierarchy certainly has a number of skeptics - almost any theory does.  However, my wife pointed me towards a very interesting study that seems to provide some degree of support for the concept of attending to one's basic needs first.  Apparently, a prisoner's chance of parole depends, at least partially, on whether the judge who is reviewing his or her case is tired and hungry! 

The study Extraneous factors in judicial decisions was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.  The investigators observed and monitored the parole hearings in over 1,100 cases at four prisons in Israel.  Only 8 judges were involved, and the study took place over a ten-month period.  Judges worked for a full day - the hearings were spread out over 3 distinct periods, each separated by a short break for a morning snack or lunch.  At the beginning of each session, prisoners had a 65% chance of being paroled.  By the end of the session, the chance of being paroled had dropped to zero percent!  The investigators suggested that by the time they were ready for a break, judges opted for the easiest decision to make, which in these cases was to deny parole. 

The study's lead investigator, Jonathan Levav, suggested that the same effect could "happen anywhere where there is sequential decision-making and some kind of status quo or default that allows people to simplify those decisions."  In other words, this bias towards the "easy way out" because of either mental fatigue or just plain being hangry could impact the decision making process in situations such as college or medical school admissions, grant reviews, peer review of manuscripts, or even (as the author's suggest) medical consultation.  Our decisions could be adversely impacted if we don't attend to our basic needs on Maslow's Hierarchy!

The lesson is clear.  Never make an important decision when you are tired or mentally drained.  Never make decisions on an empty stomach.  And never, ever let Dad get hangry!