The Evolution of Happiness

In the WSJ (7/26/13), Alison Gopnik writes "Does Evolution Want Us to Be Happy?"

"Samuel Johnson called it the vanity of human wishes, and Buddhists talk about the endless cycle of desire. Social psychologists say we get trapped on a hedonic treadmill. What they all mean is that we wish, plan and work for things that we think will make us happy, but when we finally get them, we aren't nearly as happy as we thought we'd be."

The process of evolution works to make us more fit, and thus more likely to survive and reproduce.  It's shaped our motivational system, which pushes us always toward greener pastures.  But once we've reached that greener pasture, "feeling happy now is, from evolution's perspective, just a superfluous luxury."

"It is as if every time we make a decision that actually makes us better off, evolution resets our happiness meter to zero. That prods us to decide to take the next action, which will make us even better off—but no happier."

Makes you wonder if the Buddhists have a point.