Abstract
Adaptation-level theory predicts that winning a fortune both contrasts ordinary pleasures downward and habituates you to new ones — lottery winners were not happier than controls and enjoyed mundane events less; paraplegics showed a different contrast pattern by idealizing the past.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927. DOI
Key findings
- Winners vs controls — Major lottery winners were not happier than non-winners on standard mood measures in Study 1.
- Mundane pleasure drop — Winners took significantly less pleasure from a series of everyday events than controls — contrast with the peak win dulls ordinary joy.
- Not pre-buy bias — Study 2 ruled out pre-existing differences between ticket buyers and non-buyers, and interview salience of the lottery, as full explanations.
- Paraplegic contrast — Accident victims did not boost minor pleasures; they idealized the past, which did not restore present happiness — a different adaptation route than lottery contrast.
Limits
Small samples (22 winners, 22 controls, 29 paraplegics) · 1978 interview methods · later work revises how absolute and durable adaptation is (Diener et al. 2006). Treat as a landmark mechanism illustration, not a precise effect-size law for every summit.
Application
When you expect arrival at a long-sought goal to organise happiness forever, this paper is the cold read: peak events re-anchor contrast — design ordinary pleasure and the next chapter before landing, not from emptiness after.