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EconTalk · April 1, 2024 · 65m
A User's Guide to Our Emotional Thermostat
Adam Mastroianni on the emotional thermostat — the brain's mechanism for returning to baseline after both positive and negative events. This is the hedonic treadmill viewed as adaptive technology rather than curse.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Canon
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Mastroianni: the hedonic treadmill isn't a design flaw — it's adaptive technology that prevents both sustained euphoria (which would eliminate motivation) and sustained despair (which would eliminate action).
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Mastroianni: meditation might allow you to observe the emotional thermostat in real-time — watching as the brain adjusts emotional temperature. This observation doesn't override the thermostat but changes your relationship to it.
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