Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative? - PubMed

Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative?

P Brickman et al. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1978 Aug.

Abstract

Adaptation level theory suggests that both contrast and habituation will operate to prevent the winning of a fortune from elevating happiness as much as might be expected. Contrast with the peak experience of winning should lessen the impact of ordinary pleasures, while habituation should eventually reduce the value of new pleasures made possible by winning. Study 1 compared a sample of 22 major lottery winners with 22 controls and also with a group of 29 paralyzed accident victims who had been interviewed previously. As predicted, lottery winners were not happier than controls and took significantly less pleasure from a series of mundane events. Study 2 indicated that these effects were not due to preexisting differences between people who buy or do not buy lottery tickets or between interviews that made or did not make the lottery salient. Paraplegics also demonstrated a contrast effect, not by enhancing minor pleasures but by idealizing their past, which did not help their present happiness.

Similar articles

• [Psychological problems in paraplegics and tetraplegics].

  Giardullo R, Massaro F, Giugiaro P. Giardullo R, et al. Minerva Med. 1987 Dec 31;78(24):1863-6. Minerva Med. 1987. PMID: 3431733 Italian.

• [Profiles of resilience and quality of life in people with acquired disability due to traffic accidents].

  Suriá Martínez R. Suriá Martínez R. Gac Sanit. 2015 Sep;29 Suppl 1:55-9. doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2015.01.016. Epub 2015 Mar 19. Gac Sanit. 2015. PMID: 25799268 Spanish.

• Norwegian lottery winners: Cautious realists.

  Eckblad GF, von der Lippe AL. Eckblad GF, et al. J Gambl Stud. 1994 Dec;10(4):305-22. doi: 10.1007/BF02104899. J Gambl Stud. 1994. PMID: 24234967

• The pains and pleasures of parenting: when, why, and how is parenthood associated with more or less well-being?

  Nelson SK, Kushlev K, Lyubomirsky S. Nelson SK, et al. Psychol Bull. 2014 May;140(3):846-895. doi: 10.1037/a0035444. Epub 2014 Feb 3. Psychol Bull. 2014. PMID: 24491021 Review.

• Towards a functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness.

  Kringelbach ML, Berridge KC. Kringelbach ML, et al. Trends Cogn Sci. 2009 Nov;13(11):479-87. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.08.006. Epub 2009 Sep 24. Trends Cogn Sci. 2009. PMID: 19782634 Free PMC article. Review.

Cited by

• Personality, Humor Styles and Happiness: Happy People Have Positive Humor Styles.

  Ford TE, Lappi SK, Holden CJ. Ford TE, et al. Eur J Psychol. 2016 Aug 19;12(3):320-37. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1160. eCollection 2016 Aug. Eur J Psychol. 2016. PMID: 27547251 Free PMC article.

• Balancing media selections over time: Emotional valence, informational content, and time intervals of use.

  Cho MJ, Reeves B, Ram N, Robinson TN. Cho MJ, et al. Heliyon. 2023 Nov 24;9(12):e22816. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22816. eCollection 2023 Dec. Heliyon. 2023. PMID: 38125545 Free PMC article.

• Life values in patients with COPD: relations with pulmonary functioning and health related quality of life.

  Persson LO, Engström CP, Rydén A, Larsson S, Sullivan M. Persson LO, et al. Qual Life Res. 2005 Mar;14(2):349-59. doi: 10.1007/s11136-004-0623-3. Qual Life Res. 2005. PMID: 15892424

• A Dynamical Bifurcation Model of Bipolar Disorder Based on Learned Expectation and Asymmetry in Mood Sensitivity.

  Chang SS, Chou T. Chang SS, et al. Comput Psychiatr. 2018 Dec;2:205-222. doi: 10.1162/cpsy_a_00021. Comput Psychiatr. 2018. PMID: 30627671 Free PMC article.

• Should a medical/surgical specialist with formal training in bioethics provide health care ethics consultation in his/her own area of speciality?

  Bernstein M, Bowman K. Bernstein M, et al. HEC Forum. 2003 Sep;15(3):274-86. doi: 10.1023/b:hecf.0000014775.51833.23. HEC Forum. 2003. PMID: 14686100 No abstract available.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Ovid Technologies, Inc.

• Research Materials

  • NCI CPTC Antibody Characterization Program

• Miscellaneous

  • NCI CPTAC Assay Portal