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Hedonic set point1/30/2024 ![]() Even if you’re someone who’s predisposed to gravitate towards sadness or depression, you aren’t doomed to never be happy. While we all have a set point (genetically encoded at birth) that accounts for 50% of our predisposition for happiness, there’s still plenty of leeway for improvement. ![]() Always wanting more than we have, we run and run and run, like hamsters on a wheel.” Yet, not realizing the futility of our efforts, we continue to strive, all the while doing things that help us win at the game of life. Because you can’t change your “natural and usual state of tranquility,” the riches you accumulate will just raise your expectations and leave you no better off than you were before. In life, you can work as hard as you want, and accumulate all the riches, fruit trees, and concubines you want, but you can’t get ahead. In Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt says this keeps us stuck on the hedonic treadmill “On an exercise treadmill you can increase the speed all you want, but you stay in the same place. The term called Hedonic treadmill or the hedonic adaptation coined by the psychologists Brickman and Campbell in the 70s states that most people return to their base level of happiness regardless of the events-positive or negative-that happens in their life. ![]() We run again, we set ourselves a new goal only to end up with our baseline-our set level of happiness. The happiness-if it does show up-is only momentary, often lasting a few hours, days or sometimes even a week.īefore we know it, we are back on the treadmill chasing the next big target-a bigger goal, a better responsibility or anything else that will make us happier. But once we succeed or reach that destination, instead of being euphoric, the feeling is more of a relief-getting a closure on all the effort leading up to this moment. We run to gain those things, often working every waking hour and going to extremes to improve ourselves imagining all along the way how happy we would be when we achieve this goal. We set goals and expectations-getting the next big promotion, completing a complex task or finishing up a really big project. But it also sets us on a hedonic treadmill constantly chasing the next big target. The constant desire to improve ourselves and our life situation, seeking a better life, or the pursuit of pleasure is what keeps the human race thriving.
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