Overcoming the Hedonic Treadmill: The Role of Positive and Negative Affect in Psychological Well-being

Psychologists view the emotional core of subjective well-being (SWB) as consisting of the ratio of positive affect (PA) to negative affect (NA) over a representative period of a person’s life.  This implies two routes to increasing SWB; either by increasing the numerator (PA) or decreasing the denominator (NA).  Implicit in this view is that PA and NA contribute equally, though inversely, to overall SWB.  In this paper I present experimental and correlational data showing that the NA system exhibits a gain function relative to the PA system, such that, given the same absolute value of hedonic stimulation, NA responses are stronger than PA responses.  The cognitive system, in particular, appears especially tuned to dedicate resources for the processing of negative stimuli over positive or neutral stimuli, exhibiting a negativity bias. Moreover, I present evidence to argue that NA is stronger than PA by a factor of approximately three, and suggest a useful equation modeling the affective core of well-being: 

SWB = PA / (NA/pi)  

Understanding the differential contributions of NA and PA to long-term SWB should help researchers and scholars conceptualize underlying factors and processes that produce the good life.