

The reasons: You will have identified different reasons to justify buying a new car, such as a bigger family, better fuel efficiency, higher power, or a better status symbol.

The want: You already have a car that does the job of taking you from point A to point B. Let’s see how the hedonic treadmill works when you’re buying a new car.
Hedonic treadmill tv#
The massive TV seems ordinary, and you consider buying an 8K Ultra HD screen. You now look for a promotion in your new career to increase your income and comfort. You soon adapt to the latest state of life and start aiming for something higher. Unfortunately, the feeling of joy dilutes with time. You feel overjoyed for a while and praise yourself for the decision, effort, and price. You learn new skills and make a career change or swipe your credit card to buy a gigantic curved TV. The confusion between your wants and needs prompts you to come up with justifications like those. That’s a genuine reason.īut, when you want to buy an expensive television, you tell yourself that the bigger screen will make a tremendous difference. Sometimes they’re genuine, and sometimes you fabricate them to convince yourself.įor example, you want to make a career change because you intend to provide a more comfortable life for your family. You have one or more reasons behind the want. It could be a long term plan, a new materialistic thing you want to buy or any other goal. In your current situation, you’re aiming for a target. The tendency is also called hedonic adaptation as per psychology and is one of the cognitive biases of the human mind. What was excellent or repulsive for some time, turns into the norm. Over time, no matter what the change, you will adapt to the circumstances and your state of happiness will return to its original level. After a while, you no longer feel the same contentment or pain about the episode because you get habituated. The hedonic treadmill is the tendency to return to the same state of happiness irrespective of the positive and negative incidents that occur in life.Įvery major event leads to happiness or displeasure, but that’s only short-lived. Make time for your happiness goals in the present Your circumstances don’t define your happiness

If you’re a travel enthusiast, you’re looking to cover more locations irrespective of how many places you have visited. If you’re a career-oriented person, you’re chasing new goals no matter how much you have achieved. Even the goals you’re pursuing are no longer the same.īut how much has your happiness changed? If you’re like most people, you are experiencing a similar state of joy, irrespective of the changes that occurred over the decade. Maybe you’re with a different partner now. You do not hang out with the same exact set of people as frequently anymore. Your income was different, whether that figure was higher or lower. If you had to live the same lifestyle today, you’d have a hard time fitting in. Your city looked different, some of your favorite apps did not exist, and technology was less advanced. Try to recall how life was ten years back. Let’s rewind time and go back to the past. Hedonic treadmill is the behavorial tendency to return back to the same level of happiness after experiencing positive or negative events.
