While poets argue that “ beauty vanishes, beauty passes ,” the pleasure that people take in their own improved physical appearance may not actually fade so readily.Ī 1986 article surveyed research between 19 and found that the vast majority of patients were satisfied with the results of their surgery, and that this feeling remained constant over time-in contrast with how people tend to become dissatisfied with new material possessions. Photograph by Sebastian Dooris/FlickrĪnother form of pleasure that seems surprisingly resistant to hedonic treadmill-type adaptation is the feeling of satisfaction and well-being from undergoing plastic surgery. Changing what’s on our outside can have far-reaching effects on what’s inside. One of the reasons is that, while we quickly adapt to that new handbag or pair of shoes, a good experience provides a happy memory that can be revisited again and again, with less threat of adaptation. A 2011 survey of the available empirical research indicates that spending money on experiences (for example, vacations, dance classes, or nights out with friends) makes people more happy than does spending money on material goods. Maybe those lottery winners weren’t more happy because they spent their winnings on the wrong things. While we quickly adapt to that new handbag or pair of shoes, a good experience provides a happy memory that can be revisited again and again, with less threat of adaptation. And when asked about a number of mundane pleasures-talking with a friend or eating breakfast-the lottery winners actually derived less pleasure than did the control group. The two groups also made similar predictions about their future happiness. When asked to rate their present level of happiness, the lottery winners answered in the same way as did the control group. The researchers interviewed lottery winners after the initial thrill had worn off. A now-classic study from 1978 compared the happiness of lottery winners with a control group drawn from the same neighborhoods. As the money we have to spend goes up, so too do our expectations and desires-and with them the possibility of disappointment. There is evidence that if an individual’s basic needs are met, after a certain point, increases in income do not lead to much greater happiness. The idea of the hedonic treadmill can apply to discrete pleasures-like getting accustomed to better beer-or it can apply to an overall lifestyle. But once the body adapts to that exercise, heavier and heavier weights will be needed to keep getting stronger. When you first start lifting weights, for example, a relatively light weight might be all it takes to start putting on muscle. (Conversely, when we get used to having less, it takes less to please us.) This is the known as the “hedonic treadmill.” It’s analogous to the well-known tendency to adapt to physical stress. When we get used to having more, it takes more to please us. A great pleasure, repeated often enough, becomes routine, and it takes an even greater treat to give us the same enjoyment. It now takes an even greater taste sensation to yield the same thrill our beer drinker experienced the first few times she tried the craft beer.
The experience is no longer as special as it was at first. But check in after a few months when she has been drinking the craft beer on a regular basis. The craft beer is so much more flavorful than what she has been used to drinking, and the experience is highly enjoyable. A few more sips and she comes to appreciate the beer’s complexity and the exquisite balance between bitterness and sweetness. At first she notices the intensity of the flavor. Imagine a person who, after years of drinking bland, watery beer from a mass-market brewery, finally tastes a really good craft beer. But the human tendency to adapt or “get accustomed” to situations is more profound than even Dostoyevsky may have realized.
When Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote, in The House of the Dead, that “Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything,” he was talking about the cruelties and deprivations of life in Siberian prison camp.
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