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What things do you buy for positive emotions?
Now the harder question: What negative and complex emotions have you ever bought?
When was the last time you had significant secondary emotions from a purchase process?
Find a small treat you would enjoy (a snack, perhaps). Try out some of those strategies to fight hedonic adaptation. Do they work for you?

Consuming Emotions

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The basic idea is simple: Sometimes we buy things for the emotions that they give us. Usually positive emotions, but sometimes negative ones too. We tend to really like products that can give us complex emotions (be they films, novels, or interesting holidays).

  • There are a few ideas that make it a little more interesting
    • Primary (integral affect) vs. secondary emotions
      • Sometimes the emotion comes directly from using the product in the intended manner (e.g., lying on the warm beach feels nice), and sometimes it comes from secondary sources surrounding the purchase process (e.g., sitting in your office chair daydreaming about that beach)
    • Hedonic satiation
      • Our primary affect from consuming an item often decreases as we use it more. Essentially we get adapted to it, and so it doesn’t affect us as strongly.
      • There are various ways of reducing this, that all seem to revolve around disrupting that adaptation process by finding different ways of thinking about it, or engaging with it
    • Affective forecasting
      • We tend to imagine that our things will give us stronger and longer-lasting emotional reactions than they will.
      • This can lead to us being disappointed with products when our reactions aren’t as positive as they thought they would be, and we mentally dwell on this and elaborate on what happened.