← all facts
emotion
Events do not make you as happy as expected.
The hedonic treadmill, a concept proposed by Brickman and Campbell in 1971, hypothesizes a tendency to return to a baseline happiness level, though modern psychological research suggests this adaptation is not universal.
The theory builds upon Helson's 1964 Adaptation-Level Theory, but the 1971 Brickman and Campbell paper is titled 'Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society.'
Your baseline happiness is more resilient than you assume it is.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Brickman and Campbell, 1971, Adaptation-Level Theory
- What the check found
- The theory originates from Brickman and Campbell (1971), but they titled their paper 'Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society,' not 'Adaptation-Level Theory' (which is Harry Helson's 1964 work).
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.