THE HAPPINESS PROJECT
Winning the Lottery Doesn’t Make You Happy — So What will?
There’s a difference between happy-go-lucky and truly happy
Most happiness researchers know that winning the lottery does not make a person happy, at least not after the initial euphoria wears off. This is a conclusion that the rest of us, who aren’t scientists, have had to accept, mainly because we’ve read about people who’ve won millions and then gone broke later. And we have to assume that going broke is not being happy.
We must accept the disconnect between happy-go-lucky and true happiness, but we must also ask why the disconnect exists.
It may help to imagine winning from a winner’s point of view: “I’ve won! I’ve got mega-millions. Wow! Okay! What am I gonna do with it? Oh, first I’m gonna get that ….”
Later, Mr. Winner strides about the upper floors of the New York corporation offices in a new $4,000 Ralph Lauren suit, nodding at lesser beings in their cubbyholes.
Ms. Winner, meanwhile, changes the site to Paris, sits her chic fanny down at an outdoor cafe, sips Dom Perignon champagne, and then continues on to the Diptyke for “parfums.”
If you could talk to either of these people, they’d tell you of course they’re happy. Why wouldn’t they be happy?
What they don’t realize is that their happiness is bound to be only short-term. They have yet to learn that long-term happiness results from what a person does in life, rather than something that happens to a person.
To have “a lasting sense of well-being” (this is how happiness researchers define happiness), you must have goals and you must work to achieve those goals.
Hedonic adaptation
Spending lottery winnings can be fun. This kind of happiness comes on quickly, feels terrific — and then fades away.
Such happiness is fleeting due to a psychological phenomenon called “hedonic adaptation.” “Hedonic” means “devoted to pleasure.” Hedonic adaptation lessens pleasure. Because of the phenomenon of hedonic adaptation, almost as soon as your circumstances change for the better, an adaptation to the change takes place, and you are no longer so happy.
As Mr or Ms. Winner might put it, “Winning was so exciting, but now I have all this money. Money is boring.”
The set point
What happens when the excitement of winning has faded? There is a level of happiness that you return to over and over in life after any elation or depression, any joy or sorrow. Happiness researchers call this level a “set point.” Everyone’s set point is inherited, and this value is not subject to much change.
It’s a bit like height: If you’re an adult and 5-feet-5-inches tall, there’s virtually no chance you will grow to be 6-feet tall.
Let’s say Ms. Winner has a high set point. If she does, by the time wearing that expensive parfum is habitual rather than luxurious, she will return to her normally happy state. And if Mr. Winner has a low set point, he will not be happy a year after he’s spent more of his lottery winnings on a silk tie to go with his expensive suit.
Intentional Activities
To be truly happy over time, Mr. Winner, with his low set point, must work to make something good happen, thereby making his low set point irrelevant. If he continually makes good things happen and only rarely returns to his set point, it hardly matters whether his set point is high or low.
Doing happy things is an informal definition of what the happiness researchers call “intentional activities.” Intentional activities in the pursuit of goals counteract not just a low set point but also the hedonic adaptation that lessens the pleasure we take in any once-new activity.
Intentional activities include:
- Setting goals you can reach
- Working, sometimes very hard, to reach those goals
- Getting involved in the work
- Having good experiences along the way
- Eventually maybe even realizing success
A year after Ms. Winner won the lottery, did she set some goals? Has she spent the year being involved in the work needed to succeed at her goals? If she is using her lottery winnings to fulfill her dreams, she is likely experiencing happiness even above her relatively high set point.
Goals and happiness
When we luck into something through no effort on our part, we experience an immediate high. That high subsides as we adapt to it. Within a year or so, we’re back to our happiness set point. If this set point is relatively low, it is particularly important to set some goals and work toward achieving them.
Happy-go-lucky isn’t truly happy. True happiness is an overall sense of well-being, and you have to work for that.
Sources
- “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change”
- “Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress”
