The Habitual Route to Environmentally Friendly (or Unfriendly) Happiness

Abstract

I agree with Andreou that people are ‘highly adaptable when it comes to material goods.’ But I would supplement her point about the influence of social comparisons on experiences of happiness with a point about the influence of habit. Andreou does briefly mention habituation, arguing that ‘a good will give one less happiness once one has gotten used to having it.’ While this may be true, though, it is also true that one's sense of how necessary a good is to one's happiness actually increases once one has gotten used to having it. One becomes accustomed to having that good in one's life, incorporating it into one's routines, such that it becomes difficult to imagine life without it anymore. This phenomenon complicates Andreou's argument that being happy with less is possible if everyone has less: being happy with less also depends on (re)creating habits adapted to living with less.

Notes

1. I use ‘material goods’ here as shorthand for goods, services, and utilities that involve the use of environmental resources and waste sinks.

2. The analogy to an arms race is suggested by Robert Frank (2004, p. 6).