Happiness: Cracking the Equilibrium State of People's Well-Being

摘要

Understanding the mechanisms producing happiness is crucial not only for individuals and psychological research but also for management science and political economy. It is widely accepted in positive psychology that good and bad events affect happiness. Yet, individuals quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality. This is known as the hedonic treadmill (Brickman and Campbell, 1971), the Dynamic Equilibrium Theory, or the set point theory (Headey, 2006). In this paper, we develop a System Dynamics model to analyze mechanisms creating happiness. It allows a better understanding of the formerly vaguely proposed connections between 'external' life events and individual well-being by qualitatively estimating a person's happiness over time. We model a hedonic treadmill by assuming that people's expectations and aspiration levels adapt to the actual stock levels of happiness drivers, such as income, health, and social networks. With different scenario runs we support propositions by the Dynamic Equilibrium Theory. In addition, we show that applying a holistic view and doing quantitative analysis enables us to enhance the current Dynamic Equilibrium Theory. We are able to explain lasting changes of the individual equilibrium level of happiness.