Episode 19: The Hedonic Treadmill: Pleasure Shrinks Over Time

Written by Phil in Uncategorized

Phil talks about the Hedonic Treadmill, what it means, and how to get off of it to enjoy life more. As usual, they meander around the point and tie in several disparate ideas.

This episode was edited by DamJankostovski.

References

  • Hedonic Treadmill
  • The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
  • Homeostasis Theory
  • Affluenza by John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor
  • Desensitization
  • Epicureanism
  • Diminishing Returns
  • Ross Gittins: Stop playing the game of status
    • “I’m going to drive a toyota that’s perfectly reliable and acceptable. No one will be impressed, but I don’t care. I care about how I treat people, I don’t care about my status comparative to them. To pull back from that status game, which is what keeps them on the treadmill.”
    • “The greatest freedom is not worrying about what others think of your status”
  • Social Comparison Theory
  • Richard Denniss of The Australian Institute
    • Analysis paralysis, who cares? But that’s a deliberate strategy; you buy the thing that seems most familiar – this is a strength of big brands
    • The No Name Cola test – what you do/buy says something about you in our society, and it’s hard to do what the previous point said.
    • “I drive a prius, I don’t care about status”, but that’s false because it’s a different form of status.
  • Virtue Signalling
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
    • “Since these conveniences by becoming habitual had almost entirely ceased to be enjoyable, and at the same time degenerated into true needs, it became much more cruel to be deprived of them than to possess them was sweet, and men were unhappy to lose them without being happy to possess them.”
  • Experienced vs Remembered Self (20:36)
  • Experiment referenced (Wiki): A 1993 study titled “When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End” by Kahneman, Fredrickson, Charles Schreiber, and Donald Redelmeier provided groundbreaking evidence for the peak–end rule. Participants were subjected to two different versions of a single unpleasant experience. The first trial had subjects submerge a hand in 14 °C water for 60 seconds. The second trial had subjects submerge the other hand in 14 °C water for 60 seconds, but then keep their hand submerged for an additional 30 seconds, during which the temperature was raised to 15 °C. Subjects were then offered the option of which trial to repeat. Against the law of temporal monotonicity, subjects were more willing to repeat the second trial, despite a prolonged exposure to uncomfortable temperatures. Kahneman et al. concluded that “subjects chose the long trial simply because they liked the memory of it better than the alternative (or disliked it less).”
  • (Positive Psychology) Tal Ben-Shahar is an American and Israeli writer in the field of positive psychology and leadership. He suggests the following tips for amplifying our level of happiness (2006):
    • Give yourself permission to be human: Accept your emotions, including fear, sadness, and anxiety. Rejecting them leads to frustration
    • Simplify your life. Focus on one thing at a time and reduce multitasking.
    • Find meaning and pleasure. Engage in goals you want to achieve instead of what you feel obligated to do. Spend two hours per week on hobbies. Spend time with our loved ones.
    • Focus on the positive and be grateful. Each day, write down five things for which you’re grateful.
    • Increase the effort you put into your relationships. Go on a date with your significant other or spend more time talking to your children.
    • Be mindful of the mind-body connection through exercise and the practice of mindfulness meditation, yoga, and breathing techniques. Research has shown that exercising leads to decreased levels of depression (Lyubomirsky & Tucker, 1998).
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
  • Loving Kindness Meditation
  • John Berger Quote from Ways of Seeing: “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.”
  • When Men Behave Badly
  • Paternity Uncertainty
  • Gross Domestic Happiness
  • Swiss Water Method (Decaf Coffee)
  • Worldometer Covid Numbers
  • Critical Race Theory
  • Forest Bathing
  • Steven Pink book “Drive”
  • Bo Burnham’s Inside (On Netflix)
  • Self-Determination Theory
  • Scott Adams – Always be chipping away at a skill (From his book: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life)
  • Dr. Ross Ellenhorn – How We Change (book)
  • Social Comparison

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