' Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off' by Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin, and Michael Norton in Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2014. What is the hedonic treadmill in psychology The hedonic treadmill is a psychological theory that suggests that humans have a tendency to return to a relatively stable level of happiness or subjective wellbeing, despite changes in their circumstances or external conditions. ' To Do or to Have? That is the Question' by Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003. Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, 2013. This week on Hidden Brain, we kick off You 2.0 - our annual summer series about how to approach life's chaos with wisdom - with ways to understand and step off of the hedonic treadmill. No matter how hard we try to get happier, we can't.' 'It conveys this idea that we're sort of stuck. This idea has sometimes been called the hedonic treadmill.

That’s because the surge of happiness that’s felt after a positive event is likely to return to. If you are a reader of personal finance blogs, you have probably been introduced to the idea of the hedonic treadmill. So no matter how awesome our lives might be, or what wonderful things come into our lives, we tend to get used to them over time, and the pleasure that they provide gradually diminishes.' The hedonic treadmill is a metaphor for the human tendency to pursue one pleasure after another. When the Hedonic Treadmill hits Ludicrous Speed. 'Whatever we have, we tend to get used to it.

She says at the heart of her research is a sad idea. Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn studies happiness.

Hedonic treadmill