Hedonic Treadmill
Categories: Metrics, Company Management
See: Hedonic Pricing.
If someone turns to you and says, “man, I hate to break it to you, but you’re on the hedonic treadmill,” it means that you’re being called out for bouncing back to your previous level of happiness after some big thing happened.
For instance, maybe you got a raise, a promotion, or some new clothes. You’re excited for a while, pumped...then you cool off, and it’s like it never happened. Life is “meh” again.
The hedonic treadmill is usually used to talk about the “positive” sense, as a critique on the short-lived happiness that consumer culture provides. Yet you could be on the hedonic treadmill and bounce back from a negative life event, too. Maybe it’s been a while since you got divorced or lost your job...and you’ve bounced back to your same-as-usual level of happiness.