Why Happiness Doesn’t Last — The Hedonic Treadmill

Imagine this: It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, and you’re sitting on the couch fantasizing about how happy you’ll get from buying your first car, online shopping, or getting your paycheck.

Then one of these things actually happens, you realize your expectations were too high. You are not actually as happy as you thought you would be. You might’ve felt the happiness at that moment, but it didn’t last, and it just wasn’t as intense as you imagined it. Everyone has gone through this cycle.

The “Hedonic Treadmill” is what psychologists use to explain this phenomenon. The Hedonic Treadmill (also known as hedonic adaptation) theory states that people will return to their set level of happiness regardless of the good things that happen to them (1). As we gain more material possessions (money, clothes, etc.) and achievements (promotion, award, etc.), our expectations rise (2). We adapt to these good things, in other words, we take them for granted. This treadmill is what’s making your happiness stagnate, think of it as a barrier to higher levels of happiness.

The Baseline of Happiness

You may think that happiness mostly depends on the circumstances, but studies have shown that circumstances don’t account for most of our happiness (3). As seen in the graph above, there is this baseline of happiness. This is the happiness set point, it is predetermined by our genetics (1). This set point is responsible for roughly 50% of the change in happiness (2)! However, it is important to note that 50% isn’t 100%, there’s room for improvements!

Dr. Seligman compared this happiness set point to a thermostat stating that this “set range will drag our happiness back down to its usual level when too much good fortune comes our way.”

A study was done on 22 major lottery winners with 22 controls, along with 29 paralyzed accident victims. Results showed that the lottery winners were no happier than the controls, they returned to their baseline of happiness over time. On the other side, the paralyzed victims were able to adapt to their limitations and were able to experience more net positive emotions than negative emotions. The final conclusion of this study was that, in the long run, neither group was happier than the other (4).

The results of this study can really scare some people. You may think that you are doomed to unhappiness if your genetic set point for happiness is low. You may think that nothing you do will change the fact that you will always be unhappy. I’m here to tell you that this is not true.

Further research led by Ed Diener has brought greater understanding to the hedonic treadmill than the research of Brickman and Campbell. His findings are good news! They can be summarized into five main points (5):

1. The set point is not neutral. He studied the people of original experiments and found that three-quarters of the people had a balanced score above neutral. Meaning that even if you do return to a set point of happiness, it’s a positive one instead of a neutral one.
2. People have different set points. The set points vary from person to person. The well-being of someone partly depends on his/her personality traits.
3. A person can have multiple set points. There are different components to well-being: positive emotions, negative emotions, and life satisfaction. These components can move in different directions at the same time. Just because your positive emotions are on the rise, doesn’t mean your life satisfaction is too.
4. Happiness can change. Research results have debunked one of the original conclusions that our happiness set point can’t change. Long-lasting change is possible under several internal circumstances, it all depends on you to change them (1).
5. Individuals adapt differently to external events. Some people change their set points after major events in life, but some people don’t. Some people adapt very fast, others slowly (1).

How to escape the hedonic treadmill?

The loving-kindness meditation is one answer to this question. A study done by Fredrickson assigned random people the loving-kindness meditation. Results showed that these people produced more positive emotions, leading to increased personal resources. They also experienced fewer depressive symptoms. The takeaway from their study is that loving-kindness meditation is a strategy that produces positive emotions that can outpace the effects of the hedonic treadmill (6).

• Here is a link to the practice: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/loving_kindness_meditation

Reference:

1. Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D. (2004). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Atria Paperback.
2. Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Science. In M. H. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium (pp. 287–302). New York: Academic Press.
3. Pennock, S. “The Hedonic Treadmill — Are We Forever Chasing Rainbows?” PositivePsychology, https://positivepsychology.com/hedonic-treadmill/
4. Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.36.8.917
5. Diener E., Lucas R.E., Scollon C.N. (2009) Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-Being. In: Diener E. (eds) The Science of Well-Being. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2350-6_5
6. Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045–1062.