On Hedonic Well-Being: Part 4, Four More Reasons Why Hedonic Well-Being Goes Wrong

In the last post I described four reasons hedonic well-being, on its own terms, does not cultivate our deeper flourishing. In this post I will share four more reasons the pursuit of the pleasurable life goes wrong.

Reason 5: Moral Blindness

Our pursuit of the pleasurable, pleasant, and comfortable life can blind us to the moral and ethical issues implicated in that pursuit. For example, we may enjoy cheap clothing, fast delivery, constant digital entertainment, and personal technologies while ignoring the exploitative labor conditions, extractive mining practices, and environmental harms that make those comforts possible. Relatedly, calls for a more just and equitable society often require us to give up comforts, conveniences, and cost savings upon which our present level of ease depends.

Reason 6: The Paradox of Choice

We assume that having more choices is better. Research has shown, however, that satisfaction declines as choices proliferate. This is called “the paradox of choice.” Some choice is good. We like to have options. But too many choices can overwhelm us. This is especially true given our neoliberal bias toward maximization. When we face too many attractive choices we can experience decision paralysis, fearing we might make the wrong or a suboptimal choice. Then, after the decision, we experience post-choice regret. We fear we made a bad choice, and constant social comparison makes us look with envy upon the choices of others.

Reason 7: The Failure to Integrate Suffering

Privileging the pursuit of the happy and comfortable life causes us to make choices that maximize pleasure and minimize pain. This creates a bias where we come to think that sadness, struggle, and suffering are pathological states that must be quickly escaped or avoided at all costs. But when we avoid suffering we fail to develop resilience and wisdom. Kate Bowler has also shared profound reflections about how our cultural addiction to “toxic positivity” is hurting us.

Consider, for example, how diagnoses of depression skyrocketed in the late 1980s when Prozac hit the market. Did rates of depression suddenly increase, or did the new pill allow us to escape sadness, leading to overdiagnosis and overprescription? Simply put, what costs are there to our deeper flourishing when sadness becomes chemically eliminated from the human experience?

Reason 8: Vulnerability to the Dopamine Economy

When we pursue pleasure as an end in itself we become vulnerable to an economy that hijacks the dopamine reward pathways in the brain. Instead of pursuing long-term, durable goods, we opt for quick fixes. Social media. Online porn. Fast and processed food. Video games. Online shopping. Drugs. Alcohol. Streaming services. Online gambling. We are surrounded by pleasures that satiate, stimulate, soothe, comfort, titillate, and satisfy. Instead of pursuing our deep flourishing we become captured by reinforcing cycles of craving, consumption, and addiction.

And so, going back to the last post, these are eight reasons hedonic well-being goes wrong, why the pursuit of the pleasant and pleasurable life is a dead end:

1. The hedonic treadmill
2. Affective forecasting errors
3. Pleasure as goal rather than consequence
4. Narcissistic drift
5. Moral blindness
6. The paradox of choice
7. Failure to integrate suffering
8. Vulnerability to the dopamine economy

And so, here's my advice: When you choose happiness, don't forget the good.