Hedonic Adaptation and Life Choices

Oak leaf

I've been pondering the concept of hedonic adaptation for the last several months and puzzling about its implications for my life.  Hedonic adaptation is the name for the process of maintaining a rough equilibrium in our level of happiness throughout our lives.  Some researchers have found that though we may experience periods above or below this equilibrium (for example, an increase in happiness through the purchase of a new bauble or a decrease through the break up of a relationship), most of us will ultimately arrive back at our individual set point of happiness.   Over time, we adapt and changes in happiness level are short-lived, despite our anticipation that such events will lead to long term increases or decreases in our happiness. 

For those hoping to increase their happiness in life, this isn't great news.  More bad news is that researchers have also found, through twin studies, that approximately 50% of our happiness set point is determined by our genetic background.  Stable personality traits, determined by our genes, influence the way we will perceive events and indirectly influence our level of happiness. 

Worse yet:  Data showing that though the upswing in happiness associated with positive events might be temporary (that is, we seem to go back back to our set point after something good happens), the downswing associated with severely negative events may not temporary (or, we go down permanently when something really bad happens).   For example, researchers have found that becoming disabled results in a significantly lowered sense of well-being both immediately after becoming disabled and years later.  Long term negative movement also results from changes such as divorce, widowhood, or unemployment.

Negative changes in levels of well being are generally more persistent and powerful than positive changes.  Diary studies show that everyday negative events have a greater and more long-lasting effect than everyday positive events.   Research findings are summarized in Sonja Lyubomirsky's "Hedonic Adaptation to Positive and Negative Experiences," 2010 (available here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/496/hedonic-adaptation-positive-experiences.pdf). 

This is all kind of depressing when I contemplate the future.  Aside from what the research says, I know from past experience that things that initially blow me away with a sense of stunned happiness lose some of their power on me over time.  Here, I'm thinking of how I felt the first time I saw the view from the house we rented in New Mexico, and then how I felt the first time I walked through the fields next to our house here in Maine.  I felt overwhelmed at the beauty and the sensory richness.  Over time, the intensity of those feelings faded.  My husband tells a similar story about his own experiences living in the mountains of Colorado.

So when I project into the future and think about doing basically anything at all, I think to myself, "Why bother?"  Other than the initial surge of happiness that changes might bring, I'll eventually return to the same set point.  This pessimism (realism?) is especially pronounced when I think about changes that would require an investment of funds or my labor.  Or that involve substantial risk, such as selling the house and going on the road full-time.  If the only ways to move on the well-being spectrum are up for a little bit or down significantly, why do anything?  Maybe I should just sit right here in this chair and stare blankly out the window.   To hell with remodeling the kitchen, planting a garden, or doing anything beyond the absolute basics, really. 

And given hedonic adaptation, I worry about the future:  say we take a risk, buy some kind of rv, go on the road for a few months.  What if it gets old?  What if seeing new landscapes begins to bore me and the initial happiness associated with this adventure wears off?  What then? 

My first thought is that it's the kind of thing that can't really wear off because it involves regular change and complex environments that will stimulate my senses and intellect.  That's generally what makes me happy.  But I remember writing here, not that many months ago, the exact same thing about homesteading: that what attracted me to it was the many opportunities to learn new things.  Yet here I sit, feeling pretty unhappy while I'm surrounded by opportunities to learn new things about homesteading. 

When I think now about traveling, I anticipate the happiness I might feel when we park somewhere in the wilderness and I look around at the sky and the rocks and the plants.  That anticipation of happiness makes me feel happier now than I might be otherwise.  Still, I feel kind of paralyzed.  Why am I not happy with my present circumstances, with homesteading?  Or is this the wrong way to think about it?  Maybe the cause isn't homesteading, it's me.  Maybe I'm depressed from the long winter and all the grey days.  But I don't think this is it.  I felt this cloud last year, too.  I remember wondering why I felt that there was some kind of damper on my happiness, even as I worked in the garden, the sun beat down on my face, and bees buzzed around me in the flowers.  Maybe I'm depressed more generally. 

This isn't just navel gazing.  Until I understand why I'm not happy, I hesitate to make any major changes in my life because it may be that it's not the circumstances of my life that are making me unhappy.  If the source of the unhappiness is me, I'll just bring that unhappiness along with me wherever I go.  And I feel kind of lost because I don't think that thinking will help me solve this problem of identifying the source of unhappiness.  I don't know what will. 

My next step, the only thing I can think of, is to read some of the research about raising one's happiness set point.  I've briefly scanned some research that suggests that this point can be raised through things that we can control.  So that's where I'm headed.