500 Words a Week - The Hedonic Treadmill
The hedonic treadmill is the tendency of humans to always return to a relatively stable baseline level of happiness. This is despite major positive or negative events occurring in one’s life. It describes the human inclination to pursue one pleasure after another, as the surge in happiness we feel after a positive event dwindles over time.
This is also referred to as hedonic adaptation. One of the first studies to investigate this was by Brickman and Coates; “Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?”. In this study, lottery winners and paraplegics were compared to a control group. After the initial impact of the extremely positive or negative event, happiness levels typically went back to average. An important point that has recently been discussed is that this set point we return to is not necessarily neutral, it is most likely to be a positive one.
We become habituated to what we experience. Think back to a time when you really wanted something, had a goal in mind that you set for yourself. Upon achieving that goal, you will have experienced positive emotions for a period of time. Maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe more. Over time the accomplishment and joy you felt will have dwindled. Ultimately this may be a good thing as it prevents us from being complacent and helps us when we’ve experienced something negative as we know we will return to a baseline level of happiness. However, sometimes we can become blind to how far we have come and where we are now. It’s a double-edged sword, offering protection from negative events while constraining potential gains in happiness from positive events.
Something Naval discuss’ that I believe links in with this, centres around our lifestyle and wealth. Upon gaining an increase in salary, we allow ourselves increases in our lifestyle, ultimately cancelling out our increase in financial wealth. Naval recommends that we live below our means. That with each increase, we don’t significantly increase that which we spend.
A question may stem from learning about hedonic adaptation; can we escape the treadmill? Can we increase our levels of happiness over time? Recent research proposes that we may be able to escape the treadmill with gratitude in the form of continued appreciation of the original life change and by paying more attention to and savouring positive experiences.
Upon reflecting about the above, part of me think’s it’s good that we don’t allow ourselves to get complacent. That we are constantly striving for more. However, what is harmful is only associating our happiness with achievement, as we see how fleeting this happiness can be. Don’t let that which you would like to achieve become the only thing you derive happiness from.
