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Hedonic adaptation is the tendency for the emotional impact of many positive or negative changes to fade as they become familiar.

Psychology

Mind

The story behind the card

The psychologists Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell called it the “hedonic treadmill” in 1971: however hard we run towards happiness, we stay in the same place. In a famous 1978 study, Brickman and colleagues interviewed 22 lottery winners and 29 people recently paralysed in accidents. The winners were not much happier than ordinary people and took less pleasure in small daily things, while the accident victims were less happy, but not as unhappy as others expected. Later research, using large surveys that followed the same people for years, softened the picture. Adaptation is often incomplete: long-term disability, unemployment and the death of a spouse can lower wellbeing for years, and people differ widely in how quickly they recover. There is no single happiness “set point” that everyone returns to after every event.

Türkçe oku
İnsan iyi ya da kötü birçok değişikliğe zamanla alışır ve bu değişikliklerin duygusal etkisi giderek azalır. Psikolojide buna hedonik uyum denir.

Psikologlar Philip Brickman ve Donald Campbell bu eğilime 1971'de “hedonik koşu bandı” adını verdi: Mutluluğa doğru ne kadar koşarsak koşalım, olduğumuz yerde kalırız. Brickman ve arkadaşlarının 1978'deki ünlü araştırmasında 22 piyango talihlisiyle ve kısa süre önce bir kaza sonucu felç kalmış 29 kişiyle görüşüldü. Talihliler sıradan insanlardan belirgin biçimde daha mutlu değildi ve gündelik küçük şeylerden daha az keyif alıyordu. Felç kalanlar ise daha mutsuzdu, ama başkalarının sandığı kadar değil. Aynı kişileri yıllarca izleyen büyük anketler, tablonun bu kadar basit olmadığını gösterdi. Uyum çoğu zaman tam olmaz: Kalıcı engellilik, işsizlik ve eşin ölümü, insanın yaşam doyumunu yıllarca düşürebilir; toparlanma hızı da kişiden kişiye çok değişir. Yani herkesin her olaydan sonra geri döndüğü sabit bir mutluluk düzeyi yoktur.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Hedonic treadmill
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