Did it ever happen to you to desire something greatly or for a long time, thinking it would make you happy? Once you got it, you were happy for a short while, then you got bored or maybe even depressed. There was nothing wrong with you and it’s not something out of the ordinary. It’s called hedonic adaptation.

In not-so-scientific words, we could call it: “take things for granted”. Considering a privilege to be the norm.

A few examples of hedonic adaptation

If you live in a developed country, you’re probably accustomed to going to the supermarket and finding everything you want. Sometimes your favourite brand might be out of stock at that particular store, but for sure the next one has it. Depending on your age, things might’ve always been this way or not. If you’re older, for sure they weren’t. Let’s look at fruits.

There was a time when fruits weren’t available around the clock, no matter the season. You wanted grapes, you had to wait for the autumn. You wanted cherries you had to wait for late spring-early summer. Pumpkin was available in the autumn. You were happy for each of these fruits, because, finally, their season had arrived.

If you started your career from the bottom and worked your way up, you probably noticed you felt happier when you were able to buy less. How’s that? Since money was scarce, you had to wait and gather money to buy something. When you finally had that object, you were happy. It wasn’t the norm. It was an exception to be able to buy something you deeply desired. As your buying power grew and that object became available for purchase at any moment, you’ve lost interest in it. Well, same happens with relationships: once you have it all, you get bored or take things for granted.

The theory

Hedonic adaptation means a tendency we have as humans to return to a stable level of perceived happiness despite good or bad events. The hedonic treadmill means we work like a hamster on a treadmill to maintain that perceived level of happiness. The theory was developed initially by Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell in 1971. In late 1990s, Michael Eysenck, a British psychologist, came up with the “hedonic treadmill theory”. In 2006, three other fellows proved that this “set point of happiness” can change over time.

This whole concept scientifically proves that money doesn’t bring lasting perceived happiness. That doesn’t mean “mo’ money, mo’ problems” either. It just means that even if we possess and afford more objects, we are going to feel happy / happier only for brief periods of time. Hence, the compulsive shopping, where we actually shop for seconds of happiness.

There is also a biological explanation to this regarding neural pathways, but there’s no point detailing that. This theory was also stating that we have a natural level of happiness, specific to each person. In other words, without any training, therapy or learning, naturally happy people will feel happy, while naturally not-so-happy people, will feel less happy. There is hope however for the latter category because as stated above, the set point of happiness can be changed.

As a side-note, illegal drugs artificially alter this set point of happiness. That’s why people suffering from addictions need more and more of the chosen drug to reach that point of happiness. But… it’s artificial; it’s not real.

So, if the theory of hedonic adaptation is right and we can all confirm it is, what can we do about it?

A couple of solutions

First one, works universally and is highly recommended: be grateful for what you have. Be thankful. Count your blessings. If you’re not sure how to do that, you can read about it here.

Second, by being aware of this mechanism you can understand why some things don’t make you happy anymore. That might make you reconsider some decisions.

Comfort leads to neglect. When you live in a peaceful area, you don’t value that much security measures, because “those things don’t happen here”. Until they do. When everything is beautiful in your relationship, you stop making active efforts to win the other persons, because “why do it?”. Until that person leaves.

It’s worth the wait. You might say we don’t have all the time in the world, you don’t know if there will be a tomorrow, etc. True. But instant gratification brings less happiness compared to getting something you want a bit later.

Acts of kindness can raise our happiness levels. By helping less fortunate people, we become more aware of what we have and feel more grateful.

You need to put in active effort towards the things that you value or care about. Research from 2008 has shown that placing more value on relationships, family and altruism can increase your happiness. At the same time, focusing on career, money and status will bring you less happiness.

You are free to choose whatever makes you happy 🙂

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