Experience-Stretching Hypothesis

Coined in the book Stumbling On Happiness by psychologist Daniel Gilbert, the “Experience-Stretching Hypothesis” says, in essence, that our capacity to enjoy (or “savor”) some positive experiences can be hindered if we indulge in more, and more intense experiences.

In practice, this might mean that eating nothing but fancy, expensive food for a year could hobble our capacity to enjoy a box of store-brand macaroni and cheese, and indulging in high-production value video games might make it more difficult for us to enjoy playing Pong or reading a book.

A study from 2010 linked this concept with previous findings that identified a disconnect between money and happiness: namely that more money doesn’t necessarily lead to more life satisfaction and fulfillment.

The researchers behind that study suggested that said disconnect might be the consequence of this hypothesis—increasingly wealthy people engaging in more intense, refined, “rich” activities finding it difficult to savor simpler, more commonplace experiences (which, no matter how wealthy we are, make up a non-trivial volume of our total waking hours).