Happiness is something we say we want. But can we have it all the time, and then again should we?
We’ll take this question apart as GenuLines looks at The Hedonic Treadmill.
Happiness vs. Reality: The Hedonic Treadmill
The ‘hedonic treadmill’ is a term that describes one aspect of the human condition. It paints a portrait of what many of us think is the ‘default state’ of happiness.
That default state meanwhile summed up as being ‘never quite happy’.
The hedonic treadmill is what keeps driving us forward. At the same time it keeps us from giving up.
It’s the fine line that most of us walk. Somewhere between being content and a bit uncomfortable.
Proponents of the idea say that we’ll never quite reach perfect happiness. But at the same time we’ll likely never be completely distraught either.
Evidence for the Hedonic Treadmill
So, does the hedonic treadmill actually exist? Right now your gut may be giving you an answer.
Do you feel as though you’re never quite content? If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you be completely happy then?
According to some studies we do indeed have a kind of ‘baseline’ happiness that we fall back on. One study tested happiness levels before and after life changing events.
Some participants would lose a limb and others would win the lottery. After two years both groups were at happiness levels much like their pre-event levels.
Let’s look at it from an evolutionary perspective. It’s easy to see why something like the hedonic treadmill might exist.
If we were to become completely miserable it might lead us to give up completely.
But if we were completely content we would have no motivation to keep striving to make life better. So in this case being in a state of ‘slight discontent’ can be effective.
Of course there are also criticisms of the theory. Not everyone is at the same level of happiness. And most of us will experience considerable fluctuation throughout our lives.
So the jury is still out on whether such a thing exists. And it’s easy to see that you might never actually want to be ‘100-per-cent happy’.
Whether you find that comforting or not is likely to depend very much on your point of view…
JohnK 6-26-2023
Overheard: “Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way” ~Sophocles
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