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The Psychology Of Hedonic Adaptation
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Hedonic Adaptation
... also referred to as hedonic treadmill, is defined as "the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or...
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Elements of Hedonic Adaptation
- Shifting adaptation levels: When an individual experiences a slight emotional up or down, and then returns to his or her default level of happiness.
- Desensitization: When...
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Hedonic Adaptation Critics
Critics view the hedonic adaptation tendency as a generalization that fails to take potentially shifting factors into account.
- Significant life events such as loss of employment or the e...
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Reasonings behind hedonic adaptation
People become used to whatever changes are causing their increase in happiness. Over time, the initial excitement of the thing that happened wears off with a return to the "set level of happiness."...
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Combating Hedonic Adaptation
The process of hedonic adaptation can be minimized, if not eliminated.
- Uneventful everyday routines are the ultimate breeding ground for hedonic adaptation. Variety can help maintain and...
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Hedonic adaptation
Hedonic adaptation refers to people’s common tendency to return to a determined level of happiness regardless of life’s ups and downs.
Hedonic adaptation is often referred to as “the hedonic treadmill” because we always end up where we started.
Examples of Hedonic Adaptation
- People who win the lottery are likely to revert to their original levels of happiness after the novelty of the win has worn off.
- It is also true for those who are in major accidents. People generally tend to return to their pre-accident levels of happiness after a period.
- Research has found that the first bite of something delicious is experienced as more pleasurable than the subsequent bites.
How Much Control We Have
Researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky has examined this set-point:
A full 50 percent of our happiness set-point is due to genetics. 10 percent is affected primarily by circumstances like where we were born and to whom. 40 percent is subject to our influence.
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Hedonic Adaptation: Eternal Dissatisfaction
When we obtain our desires, needs and wants, we quickly get accustomed to it, taking those shiny toys for granted, and easily getting bored with them. We mistakenly look for happiness in this hedonic adaptation, a thirst that never gets quenched.
Short bursts of happiness that diminish after a week don't represent real happiness.
Our Happiness Formula Is Wrong
We have, since the beginning, a wrong formula implanted in our minds about the pursuit of happiness. We think if we do amazing work, attain big success, then we will be happy eventually.
The reality is that new goals are constantly on the horizon, and our so-called happiness keeps getting pushed further and further away. This leads to a feeling of emptiness, not happiness or contentment when a goal is fulfilled.
Happiness Comes First, Then Success
The real formula for success is to be happy first. If you are happy, and your work is great as a result, excellence is assured, which leads to success.
A happy person gravitates towards positivity, intelligence, creativity and better energy, and success then has no choice but to be associated with the person.
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The status shift
We take on more
When we reach each new Utopia we're neither closer nor further from a true life of leisure. Rather than offload work, we choose equilibrium, absorbing our gains so as to take on more.
Working less
If we ever want to reach a workless society — or at least one where we work less — it won’t do to rely on dispassionate historical or technological forces to bring it about.
Instead, we’ll have to get it for ourselves.