Supposing that you have hearing loss, what’s most likely to make you happy?
A) Winning the lottery, or
B) Getting a new pair of hearing aids
It might appear clear to you that the answer is A, but research on happiness tells a quite different story.
To begin with, most people do have a tendency to THINK that extraneous circumstances are most likely to make them happy. They consistently mention things like more money, better jobs, a new car, or winning the lottery.
What studies have found, however, is surprisingly the reverse. The things that people in fact REPORT making them happier are not external or materialistic—they are mostly innate.
The things that make most people happiest are high confidence, strong social skills, robust relationships, free time, volunteering, and humor, as presented in the Stanford University video We Don’t Know What Makes Us Happy (But We Think We Do).
Winning the Lottery and the Hedonic Treadmill
If you answered that winning the lottery would make you happier, you might be correct, but research is not necessarily on your side.
In one frequently cited study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers interviewed several Illinois state lottery winners and contrasted them with both non-winners and with accident victims that were left paraplegic or quadriplegic.
The interview questions focused on assessing happiness levels, and the results revealed that lottery winners were roughly just as happy as both non-winners and the accident victims.
The study concluded that people will usually have a preset happiness level. Major events like winning the lottery or experiencing a disabling trauma cause a short-term increase or drop in happiness—but the person’s happiness level in both cases will return to the fixed point.
This is compatible with the “hedonic treadmill” theory, which states that most people maintain approximately the same levels of happiness throughout life, comparable to when you adapt to and increase the speed on the treadmill.
For example, if you land a job with a higher income, you more than likely will be temporarily happier. But once your happiness level reverts to normal, you’ll just desire a job with even greater income, and on and on.
Buying Happiness with Hearing Aids
If you answered that using hearing aids would make you happier, your answer is more consistent with the research.
According to social psychologist Dr. Dan Gilbert, two decades of research on happiness has revealed that the single most important determiner of happiness is our relationships. He explains that our brains have evolved so that we can be social, and that “friendless people are not happy.”
Which is excellent news for hearing aid users.
Because the cornerstone of any healthy relationship is communication, and communication is dependent on healthy hearing, hearing aids enhance relationships and a sense of confidence in those who wear them.
And research tends to support this view. Numerous studies have confirmed that hearing aid users are pleased with their hearing aid performance, notice a positive change in their general mood, and achieve enhanced relationships and social skills.
As a result, wearing hearing aids promotes all of the things that tend to make us happier, while winning the lottery gives us more money, which at best will only make us temporarily happier. So the next time you venture out to buy lottery tickets, you may want to drop by the local hearing specialist instead.