'Hedonic treadmill' is a term coined by Brickman and Campbell in their article, 'Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society' (1971), describing the tendency of people to keep a fairly stable baseline level of happiness despite external events and fluctuations in demographic circumstances. Major theoretical approaches Behavioral/psychological approach The process of adaptation can also occur through the tendency of humans to construct elaborate rationales for considering themselves deprived through a process social theorist Gregg Easterbrook calls 'abundance denial'. Further, neurochemical processes desensitize overstimulated hedonic pathways in the brain, which possibly prevents persistently high levels of intense positive or negative feelings. Generally, the process involves cognitive changes, such as shifting values, goals, attention and interpretation of a situation. Hedonic adaptation can occur in a variety of ways. The process of hedonic adaptation is often conceptualized as a treadmill, since no matter how hard one tries to gain an increase in happiness, one will remain in the same place. Generally, hedonic adaptation involves a happiness 'set point', whereby humans generally maintain a constant level of happiness throughout their lives, despite events that occur in their environment. Hedonic adaptation is a process or mechanism that reduces the affective impact of emotional events.

The hedonic treadmill