“And in the same way that our eye adapts to different levels of illumination, we’re designed to kind of go back to the happiness set…
“And in the same way that our eye adapts to different levels of illumination, we’re designed to kind of go back to the happiness set point. Our brains are not trying to be happy. Our brains are trying to regulate us.” In this respect, the tendency toward adaptation suggests why the impact bias is so pervasive. As Tim Wilson says: “We don’t realize how quickly we will adapt to a pleasurable event and make it the backdrop of our lives. When any event occurs to us, we make it ordinary. And through becoming ordinary, we lose our pleasure.”
The Futile Pursuit of Happiness, from the NYT Magazine. Fascinating article about reward responses, and our ability to predict the specific response ahead of time (i.e., we are very bad at it). [Found via lispy weblog lemonodor.]