Amygdala speaks:The vices and virtues of Hedonic Adaptation
Remember when a few months back I wrote this article titled On immunity to wonder? For those of you did not read the post in question or are thinking TLDR(although why you're reading this if you think that way is a good question:P), I will spare you the verbosity and take you to the crux of the matter: I was pondering over why we become "immune" to things/people/experiences over a period of time and lose out the initial intense emotional reactions we have to them. Quite recently, I stumbled upon an article on Hedonic Adaptation. As mostly happens with me and psychology, I was overtly elated that my weird observation was already well studied and documented and even had a name.:D
For people who are still wondering what Hedonic Adaptation is, I will draw on a trivial example from my own life. As a kid, I longed for a swing. When I say longed for, I don't mean something whimsical that children ask for and then forget. I really really longed for it. I somehow epitomized it to this extreme point where I saw it as the defining pinnacle of my childhood. I would visualize sitting on the swing with a book all afternoon and evening, reading away to oblivion. And then, when it turned dark, I could stare at the inky black sky speckled with a million stars while the wind caressed my skin. I pestered my parents to get me one for almost a year, till they finally gave in. My happiness knew no bounds. I would spend all day everyday on the swing. I even insisted on eating my meals there. The moment I woke up, I'd go over to reassure myself that my swing was actually there. My parents called it "a phase" and waited for it to wear off. They were right. In a few weeks, my visits to the swing dwindled down so much that it was soon as if the swing did not exist at all. It ended up as another forgotten toy of my childhood. :)
And that is hedonic adaptation for you. Wikipedia defines it as: "The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes."
If you think of it, it is a very contrary notion. We, as humans, usually have this wishlist--our rationale is that the more of it we achieve, the happier we become. But as it turns out, the number of things we have checked on that list are totally uncorrelated to our happiness because of this bizarre(or sensible,depending on which way you look at it) tendency of our minds to seek a stable state. Which simply put, means that you might have bought that car you wanted since years, but it isn't going to make you any happier once you're past the initial rush. You'll eventually get back to that same state you were pre-car. Boy, it feels like I'm pouring cold water on your enthusiasm eh? Sorry about that, but let's be logical for a while. Logical in trying to reason out our emotions--how paradoxical:P
For people who are still wondering what Hedonic Adaptation is, I will draw on a trivial example from my own life. As a kid, I longed for a swing. When I say longed for, I don't mean something whimsical that children ask for and then forget. I really really longed for it. I somehow epitomized it to this extreme point where I saw it as the defining pinnacle of my childhood. I would visualize sitting on the swing with a book all afternoon and evening, reading away to oblivion. And then, when it turned dark, I could stare at the inky black sky speckled with a million stars while the wind caressed my skin. I pestered my parents to get me one for almost a year, till they finally gave in. My happiness knew no bounds. I would spend all day everyday on the swing. I even insisted on eating my meals there. The moment I woke up, I'd go over to reassure myself that my swing was actually there. My parents called it "a phase" and waited for it to wear off. They were right. In a few weeks, my visits to the swing dwindled down so much that it was soon as if the swing did not exist at all. It ended up as another forgotten toy of my childhood. :)
And that is hedonic adaptation for you. Wikipedia defines it as: "The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes."
If you think of it, it is a very contrary notion. We, as humans, usually have this wishlist--our rationale is that the more of it we achieve, the happier we become. But as it turns out, the number of things we have checked on that list are totally uncorrelated to our happiness because of this bizarre(or sensible,depending on which way you look at it) tendency of our minds to seek a stable state. Which simply put, means that you might have bought that car you wanted since years, but it isn't going to make you any happier once you're past the initial rush. You'll eventually get back to that same state you were pre-car. Boy, it feels like I'm pouring cold water on your enthusiasm eh? Sorry about that, but let's be logical for a while. Logical in trying to reason out our emotions--how paradoxical:P
This diagram reminds me a lot of those response waveforms in control systems :D
So now, when you feel that vague sense of indifference and apathy gnawing at you after getting what you want, you know where to point your finger at. Hedonic adaptation, if I were to look for a one word non-technical synonym, is nothing but fading. If I were a medieval poet, maybe I'd say something like Those emotions were obscured away into oblivion by the blurring tentacles of time.:D
However, I'm no poet, or even a wizard of prose. So I'll take the liberty of quoting the eloquent Rousseau here (note the year, can you believe that writers had such profound epiphanies so early in civilization!):
“Since these conveniences by becoming habitual had almost entirely ceased to be enjoyable, and at the same time degenerated into true needs, it became much more cruel to be deprived of them than to possess them was sweet, and men were unhappy to lose them without being happy to possess them.”
– Jean Jacques Rousseau in his Discourse on Inequality (published in 1754)
Anyway, I'm sure this would have gotten you to the point where you hate the phrase Hedonic Adaptation and blame it for all the unhappiness and discontent in your life. Your natural immediate question in the pursuit of happiness would be, Is there anything I can do to avoid this and stay on cloud nine?
Fret not. Psychology says there's hope for us yet. Be warned though, this is a bitter pill to take. The solution outlined, ironically enough, seems to use the problem itself. So when you move up this treadmill, nice becomes normal and normal verges on bad. What if you moved downwards? Towards minimalism. Normal would become nice and bad would verge on normal. You get a pleasant inversion. Deprivation of luxuries, basically. A slight variation on this theme is a temporary deprivation followed by indulgence. If you have a favorite chocolate, then eating it less often will make it seem nicer. Trying to trick your mind into almost forgetting what something felt like, and then re-creating the original experience of the same intensity. From both observation and experience, I can guarantee that these work--soemwhat.
There is a lot more that I'd hoped to write, but due to time and energy constraints, I will leave it at this for today. All of this will hopefully make sense to you, unless you do not belong to the hedonic school of thought. For the uninitiated, hedonism and eudaimonism are two fundamentally different worldviews. Hedonism advocates that pleasure leads to happiness, which is the primary goal of life, whereas eudaimonism preaches that happiness is a by-product of meaning and self-realisation--remember Maslov's pyramid? Anyway, feel free to use the comments section as a sounding board for your thoughts!
P.S: Again, this remained a superficial article--a mere paraphrasing of all that I have read without any insights of my own. I have to a do a lot more reading to get to the depth I actually want to write at...someday :)
A grim but true picture of hedonic adaptation
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