Hedonic Adaptation: The Truth About Happiness

Super Aliens

Imagine we are a super-intelligent omnipotent alien species with time travel, Dyson spheres, and all sorts of cool s**t. We can explode planets, suck the energy from stars, and form portals.

One day, while sipping a Pina Colada with your alien body on a flamingo inflatable, tanning, you decide to pull an experiment. You’re smart with your veiny ass head alright, but not artsy. You call it The Well-being VS Ill-being Experiment.

Experiment Time

After rubbing your ugly body with alien sunscreen and dressing, you get in your ship. It’s time.

You spawn two dudes and split them into parallel universes. Larry I. and Larry W., both of equal age, profession, looks, and personality.

Ill VS Well

Larry I. undergoes a divorce. You watch him mourn like a rat in a cage, evil alien that you are. He drinks a bit, eats some more, gains some weight.

The other Larry marries. The wedding was perfect. The bride looked flawless, the cake was great. He goes on a honeymoon, drinks and eats a bit, gains some weight.

Fast Forward

Momentarily, Larry I.’s life sucks, and Larry W.’s life is wonderful. You find it boring, slurping your virgin cocktail—as professional researchers cannot be drunk!—so you look for the black thing with buttons. Aha! My time remote!

You click the double-arrow and the two lives skip a year or so, making the classic whirring sound. What about now, my rats? Who’s happier?!

No Way, Right?

Both seem remarkably similar… Both lost the extra pounds, got back to work, and stopped drinking and overeating… Is your alien tech dysfunctional?

It can’t be. Your bulbous, veiny head, with those protruding, black alien eyes doesn’t accept it. You scan them. You clone them and dissect them. There’s no difference! Larry I. and Larry W. are equally as happy!

Baseline Happiness

Can it be? It is, has been, and will be. Significant positive and negative events merely spike or plunge human happiness, akin to dropping a stone in a lake. The waves get smaller and smaller, until they level out.

Humans have evolved to remain stable. This allowed us to concentrate on long-term growth, and not get overwhelmed by temporary highs or lows. This makes for the drive to continually innovate and try new things.

Natural Equilibrium

Otherwise, how would Larry Ill-being recover? How could Larry Well-being get back to the mundane day-to-day, after a picturesque wedding and honeymoon? One in a hole, the other on a mountain, no escape for either.

Life has it’s ups and downs and we evolved to handle them by equalizing the pressure. Excessive despair during adversity or complacency during wealth, neither we want. A state of perpetual contentment (dis-) would place you into Dante’s limbo. No forwards, no backwards; no change. Frozen.

Psychological Backdrop

The tendency of humans to return to a stable level of happiness despite external circumstances—hedonic adaptation—keeps us steady. The human condition. Why five ice lattes daily satisfies as much as one. You adjust, and you can’t do much about it.

Individuals have baselines determined by genetics and unchangeable personality traits. Temporary deviations occur—cause life, burritos, divorces, and stuff—but we revert. Minutes, weeks, months, or rarely, years, and we’re back.

Every Change

Plus, our brains love saving energy. Namely, heuristics and habits. Even a continuum of positive or negative news gradually becomes less and less impactful. Kind of like how you adjust to a new temperature, room, or home after moving. One strawberry is sweet, the second too, the fourth less, and the tenth is water-like.

Part of our lazy brains are also our expectations. Love them or hate them, we unceasingly dive into comparison spirals, weighing ourselves versus our past and others. Well, even these adjust to fit a baseline, our comparisons shift, and we desire more. Lost weight? Now you want abs. Got abs? You want more muscle. Ad infinitum.

Good Or Evil?

You could deem this bad. Boo! No happiness for me?! Or, good. Since, well, the hedonic treadmill is a massive source of resilience and motivation.

Odd in perspective. Lottery winners experience boosts and dips. Paraplegics feel a dramatic decrease and revert later. Divorces and marriages—yep, you guessed it.

Discontented Forever?!

Job promotions, new homes, graduating, major purchases, body image changes (weight loss/gain), health improvements (illness/surgery), vacations (sorry!), sports achievements, new romantic relationships, child birth, and career shifts. Guess what? All are temporary, and we revert to baseline.

Does this mean there’s no happiness? Not the lottery, money, school, extravagant vacations, or children? Are we creatures doomed to eternal suffering? Could hell be earth itself?!

No! No! Maybe?

Okay okay, calm down there. The hedonic treadmill is real, and well-documented in the literature. Short answer: yes, your happiness will return to a baseline.

Long answer: there is evidence for augmenting your baseline. Even a tiny crescendo here does more than any quick-fix. Think about it.

Contentment Potion

The rubber band will shock back into place, and here are some promising methods to change that place. Gratitude, mindfulness, physical exercise, relationships, purpose and meaning, personal growth, optimism, and environmental changes.

Basic? Somewhat. Still, the strategies make sense. Each shifts us towards a positive light, strengthens our innate traits, and gives us meaning. Oddly enough, synonymous treatments help depressed patients, so rest assured knowing they work.

Gratitude & Mindfulness

Gratitude is ancient, hitting culture just recently. Any regular exercise—letters, journaling, acts of kindness—which places an aurora on things you are thankful for, works. Try it. Three sentences of what you are thankful for today.

Mindfulness is yet another drill utilized for thousands of years. Meditation is terrific: sit down, close your eyes, and concentrate on the breath. A full, free guide about mindfulness here.

Exercise & Grow

Physical exercise is a no-brainer, isn’t it? The endorphins act as instant rocket fuel, and the progress reinforces your positive traits. A must do! Full, free guides: aerobic or anaerobic.

Purpose, meaning, and personal growth are closely intertwined. The more you spend your days engaging with purposeful, meaningful, challenging activities which make room for you to grow, the happier you become.

Meaning & Relationships

Purposeful and meaningful activities are personal, and you sense it when you find it. Usually something done for the greater good, something altruistic, or art. Find that thing. Put your all into it. Grow.

Relationships and the environment share common ground too. You want positivity and support from your environment, be it in a tight-knit family or workspace. You want robust bonds. This’ll ensure those dips after negative events are attenuated that much faster.

Daily Happiness

See, contentment does not stem from those massive ups and downs. Not from a lucky ticket, marriage or divorce, getting promoted, graduating, or shedding pounds. Rather, it comes from the small things.

There’s no use chasing doses, dollars, or vacations on floaties if your goal is long-term satisfaction. Find magic in the small. You don’t have to, you get to! You have the opportunity to enjoy coffee, a healthy body, an intelligent mind, a robust support network, and a meaningful vocation!

I’ll end with a quote from a wandering teacher, long dead now. His name was Siddhartha Gautama, and he lead a minimalistic, meditative life. “There’s no path to happiness.” said the Buddha, “Happiness is the path.”