Hedonic treadmill
Also known as: Hedonic adaptation
What it is
We return to a baseline level of happiness after good or bad changes, so we underestimate adaptation and overestimate how much a purchase or promotion will help.
Example The thrill of a new car fades within weeks.
Related
Appears in
References
- Wikipedia: Hedonic treadmill en.wikipedia.org
- The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org
More in “Deciding and acting: incentives, loss and commitment”
Overconfidence effectLoss aversionSunk-cost fallacyCognitive dissonanceMotivated reasoningIncentive super-response tendencyStatus quo biasEndowment effectOptimism biasPlanning fallacyOutcome biasHyperbolic discountingScarcity errorAffect heuristicAction biasOmission biasDefault effectFear of regretAmbiguity aversionParadox of choiceDecision fatigueProcrastinationMental accountingEffort justificationIllusion of controlHouse-money effectWinner's curseMotivation crowdingNeomaniaNot-invented-here syndromeInability to close doorsOverthinkingStrategic misrepresentationDéformation professionnelleZeigarnik effectIllusion of skillDomain dependenceBeginner's luckSleeper effect"Get worse before it gets better" fallacyVolunteer's folly