Hedonic adaption

March 2, 2006

Everyone seems to have opinions about happiness research. Apparently a branch of such research goes under the hapless name of “hedonic adaption.”

EconLog, Happiness Research: Get Used to It, Bryan Caplan: Library of Economics and Liberty

I’m not so sure I want to get used to it, except perhaps for its entertainment value. In my not so humble opinion, any analysis of human happiness that ignores God’s dealing with his creatures is suspect, if for no other reason that God has so much to say about happiness.

One interesting thought in hedonic adaption is the tendency we have to blame others when we deem ourselves to be unhappy.

If and who you blame for bad events matters too. In one study, “[V]ictims of severe accidents who blamed themselves for the accident were coping more successfully eight to twelve months afterward than those who did not, and… victims who blamed other people (as opposed to some nonspecific external cause) displayed especially low coping scores.” This rings so true to me that my head is still spinning. Have I ever felt unhappy for long about something without blaming another person? I’m drawing a blank.

The bottom line is that I’m glad that smart, careful scholars like F&L are hard at work on this topic because I want the answers. Happiness is much too important to be left to the mush-heads in the New Age/Self-Help section.

If you get the answers you are looking for from happiness research, Bryan, what will you do with them? Is this just an intellectual exercise, or do you hope to find a magic pill for unhappiness for yourself or for others? (But I agree wholeheartedly with your last assertion!)

Dave, who is not sure whether it is very important for him to be happy.

Posted by Dave | Filed Under Economics, People