Hedonic Adaptation And Scam Victims Finding Happiness – 2024
Hedonic Adaptation And Scam Victims Finding Happiness
Hedonic Adaptation: Understanding the Stability of Happiness and the Path to Lasting Contentment
Primary Category: Scam Victim Recovery
Author:
• Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
About This Article
Hedonic adaptation, often called the hedonic treadmill, is the psychological phenomenon where people return to a baseline level of happiness despite significant positive or negative changes in their lives. This concept suggests that while new circumstances can initially alter one’s emotional state, people quickly become accustomed to these changes, leading their overall happiness to stabilize over time.
Both positive events, like promotions or new relationships, and negative events, like job losses or breakups, see initial emotional spikes or dips, but eventually, individuals return to their baseline happiness level. Of course, trauma changes this in many significant ways.
