Hedonic Adaptation

The Executive Paradox: Why Your Big Win Feels Small So Fast

“Familiarity breeds contempt.”

I’ve always disliked that saying, but there is so much truth to it.

Psychologists tell us that as human beings we are always looking for the new - the next phone, car, job - to give us that kick of dopamine. But a couple of weeks or months later and the excitement has worn off.

This is called hedonic adaptation, which essentially means that we get accustomed to things - we return to a baseline of happiness whatever we go through.

Great if things are terrible - as chances are we will adapt to our circumstances - but not so good if we almost instantly lose the thrill that the new pair of shoes or position gave us.

It was highlighted by the psychologists Brickman and Campbell who did a study back in 1971 of a group of lottery winners and also a group of people who had experienced terrible accidents with life-changing effects. They found that “lottery winners and accident victims both returned to their pre-event happiness levels within a few months or years”.

So how can we prolong our positive feelings around something?

The Bottom Line Truth in Leadership Behaviour

The positive psychologist, Sonja Lyubomirsky, in her book The How of Happiness, states that we can take intentional steps to prevent adaptation and so prolong the positive effects of life events.

We can practise being grateful, writing down our gratitudes. If we then share our gratitude with another, it’s been found to be even more powerful, increasing happiness for longer. In their study on couples and communicative styles, Barton et al (2015) even found that it can mend marital rifts, nullifying other bad things in your marriage.

Savouring a situation or thing by stepping outside it to appreciate it mindfully. This forces us to notice the experience in detail rather than skimming through life without connecting.

Lyubomirsky suggests thinking of a happy memory for 8 minutes a day for three days, replaying it in detail to yourself. She says that 4 weeks later you will still be experiencing the positive effects.

Use negative visualisation - like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” - where you imagine how things would be if they hadn’t been this way. Sure this may not work with a handbag or outfit, but could be effective in thinking about how life would be if you hadn’t met your partner, for instance.

So whilst we may all experience hedonic adaptation, when we’ve experienced something positive, let’s work at prolonging its effect!