People often adapt substantially to changed circumstances, though adaptation varies greatly by event and is frequently incomplete.
Brickman and Campbell proposed it in 1971. The 1978 lottery-winner and accident-victim study usually cited for it was cross-sectional and did not show that either group returned to baseline within a year. Adaptation is real, uneven, and often partial.
In practice
- A promotion feels transformative for a quarter and much less so by the end of the year, though how far the feeling fades varies by person and event.
- A commuter who moves to shorten their journey by forty minutes reports the same satisfaction within a year, and now lives further from friends.
- Possible explanations
- The explanation is comparison and attention: circumstances become the new baseline, and a change that is no longer noticed stops producing feeling.
- In its favour
- Adaptation is measurable in panel data for many events, including marriage and income changes, and the general pattern of fading response is robust.
- Against it
- It is frequently incomplete and varies greatly by event, with unemployment, disability and bereavement showing little or no return to baseline, and the lottery study usually cited for it was cross-sectional and showed no such return within a year.
- Standing
- The 1978 lottery-winner and accident-victim study was cross-sectional and did not show a return to baseline within a year.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind