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The Hedonic Treadmill

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Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#11

Post by scotty79 »

That's the worst name for the simplest thing. I'd call it 'illusion of impact'. What happens to you seems like it's affecting you but really doesn't. After a while you feel no happier or sadder that you have always been. It's because your happiness is biological and you can improve it or harm it lastingly only by affecting your biology. Getting more money won't affect it. Sleeping longer, moving more, eating with more variety or leaving people and places that cause immense daily stress, properly diagnosing and treating that reflux, fixing your teeth just might.

People are so keen to jump at the fact that mind somewhat affects the body, but often miss the fact that mind is the part of the body.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#12

Post by reallydontask »

scotty79 wrote: post #11

That's the worst name for the simplest thing. I'd call it 'illusion of impact'. What happens to you seems like it's affecting you but really doesn't. After a while you feel no happier or sadder that you have always been. It's because your happiness is biological and you can improve it or harm it lastingly only by affecting your biology. Getting more money won't affect it. Sleeping longer, moving more, eating with mor…

That's a good name for it

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#13

Post by TomMarius »

scotty79 wrote: post #11

That's the worst name for the simplest thing. I'd call it 'illusion of impact'. What happens to you seems like it's affecting you but really doesn't. After a while you feel no happier or sadder that you have always been. It's because your happiness is biological and you can improve it or harm it lastingly only by affecting your biology. Getting more money won't affect it. Sleeping longer, moving more, eating with mor…

Just a comment under you is a description why it's a good analogy (by user skrebbel). Do you disagree (it's a newer comment than yours)?

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#14

Post by mrmonkeyman »

It also is obvious. What do you expect? More and more happiness? Of course there is a base level and a maximum and no matter what happens, you return to it. Later you can be proud of your accomplishments.

Happiness is overrated anyway. Be proud of what is achieved, do not hang on to fleeting feelings.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#16

Post by sadface »

The way this is phrased makes it seem like this "treadmill" is a bad thing. I acknowledge that this is bad for an individual, but I actually think this is overall good for humanity and is a major reason why we've developed so much so quickly.

We know plenty of animal species are really smart, but they've never figured out how to build skyscrapers or generate electricity. We chalk this up to the fact that "humans are just smarter", but even in humans brains alone don't bring accomplishments. There has to be associated action, and people need motivation to actually take that action.

Our ancestors didn't say "well I've figured out how to grow some wheat and live in a straw hut, so I'm good now". Sure, they probably did for a while, but soon they started looking for easier ways to grind their flour and tastier ways to cook it because they stopped being satisfied with the status quo. Extend this for ten millenia and now we have billions of people connected to a global network from devices in their pocket.

If humans were always perfectly happy all the time, I don't think we'd have come as far as we have. The "return to dissatisfied normalcy" that comes over time is part of our nature and it may be one of the most important parts for explaining why we got here.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#17

Post by k__ »

I'm living non-monogamous and in the poly community we often talk about a similar phenomenon called "Relationship Escalator", which is less general than the "Hedonic Treadmill".

The idea is that most people see a relationship as an escalator where you move up somehow automatically. First you date, than you're going steady, then you move in together, marriage, kids etc. pp.

The hedonic treadmill is considered one of the reasons for this behavior. Many people are most happy at the beginning of a relationship, when they get less happy they try to do something to get back to the starting level.

Points here are:

1. The space of new things you can do with your relationships isn't one dimensional, you don't have to move in one direction to get happier.

2. Maybe you're just running in the hedonic treadmill and don't realize it, so take some time to evaluate your life before you do things that are hard to impossible to revert.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#18

Post by tonyedgecombe »

arketyp wrote: post #4

In the way that being content is an evolutionary disaster, it makes sense that we always have an itch to scratch.

The trouble is advertising and marketing have irritated it so much that we have gone past the point where scratching was good. That itch has turned into a gaping wound filled with puss and blood.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#19

Post by perfunctory »

This is a great name for the phenomenon. While running the metaphorical treadmill, not only we don't get happier, we are also heating up the planet at an unprecedented rate. Slow down people.

Re: The Hedonic Treadmill

#20

Post by bschne »

Slightly OT, but does anyone have a digital copy of the original paper cited in the article? Would love to read it but I can't find a PDF or a doi to search for on Scihub.

Brickman; Campbell (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. New York: Academic Press. pp. 287–302. in M. H. Apley, ed., Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium, New York: Academic Press

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