Why a Dutch sun does feel better?
By: Boris Bielik
The picture
It was one of the first days of the sun when I could smell and feel spring. Riding a bike through a small brick houses street with the sun shining on one side of the street and touching my face, led me a few moments to briefly close my eyes and appreciate it. In one of the moments of opening, I saw an elder lady stepping out of the house, with a small foldable chair and cup of coffee in the other hand. She had grey curly hair with sunglasses on the top, a small jacket, and slippers still on. She unfolded her chair and sat down with a sign of relief and joy facing the stray sun only disrupted by me passing by. We exchanged smiles, in which we shared the joy of the long-awaited sun.
This encounter left me with two ideas:
First I have never appreciated the sun this much and second I have never seen people taking every possible moment to fully enjoy the sun as here in the Netherlands.
Why? Inevitable question to which I knew the answer immediately.
Because it’s rare. It's precious and I haven’t felt it for quite some time now. The lady must have felt the same.
The scarcity of the sun leads to more appreciation for it. The potential of this idea and its applicability to various areas sparked my interest.
Interestingly the weather is one of the few things, which operate solely without human contribution (for now). There is no button, where we can just change it to what we want. This makes weather special in comparison to other areas of our lives. Work, studies, hobbies, food, friends, intimate partners, travels, parties... To a bigger or smaller extent, we are the possession of control over these events. We decide how much, when, and how.
Research in the area of scarcity shows its relationship to increased gratification and happiness. This knowledge is in accordance with common sense, however, there is more to it than we might initially assume. Quoidbach and Dunn created conditions in which three groups of people were examined. The first group was given almost a kilogram of chocolate for the duration of the week with instructions to indulge as much as they wanted. The second group was instructed not to eat chocolate for the duration of a week. The third group was a control group and did not receive any particular instructions.
If you could choose at this point, you would most likely choose the lots chocolate group, me too. Nonetheless, to my amazement, the results showed significant differences in enjoyment (savouring) of the chocolate after one week. Scores of positive affect were significantly higher for the not eating chocolate group than for the two others (Quoidbach, J., & Dunn, E. W., 2013).
The reason for the difference in savouring between an abundance of chocolate among individuals and ones with restricted access might be linked to a process named hedonic adaptation. Its effects result in the neutralization of either positive or negative events due to repetition (Frederick & Loewenstein, 1999; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Wilson & Gilbert, 2008). For instance, if you received a massage every day, it does not feel so special as if you had it once a year. Similar patterns follow throughout various areas. Other studies found a non-linear relationship between the amount of discretionary time (free time) and happiness. Surprisingly more happiness does not increase infinitely with increased leisure time. A Series of studies by Mogilner and Hershfield found that ideal discretionary time resides between two and five hours; if it’s lower, it has the potential to increase, yet if its higher subjective well-being decreases.
Despite the fact that these findings have limits such as meaning and so they still provide interesting insights into what might aid us to increase our well-being and view scarcity from a slightly contrasting angle.
In conclusion, luckily we do not possess the magic button to adjust the weather to our means, and the Netherlands provides an interesting, which I dare to say sweet spot, between lots of rain, hail, wind, and beautiful sunny days, like today when I am writing.
Yet, we own buttons for managing other areas of our lives and adjusting the events and stimuli to fit ourselves in the best ways possible. While researching I have not encountered perfect equilibrium, so probably in the meantime, we are destined to juggle our tasks in seeking balance. Hopefully, knowledge about scarcity and hedonic adaptation can prove helpful, and in the meantime enjoy the sunshine!
If you are interested more in this topic I provide references, starting with TED-ed which gives a good and fun insight into the problem. For those further interested, I will come back to this topic the following month. By taking into consideration aspects that increase savouring, factors that promote happiness, and the perspective of Abraham Maslow.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juO4zxsjSjw
Quoidbach, J., & Dunn, E. W. (2013). Give It Up: A Strategy for Combating Hedonic Adaptation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(5), 563–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612473489
Sharif, M. A., Mogilner, C., & Hershfield, H. E. (2021). Having too little or too much time is linked to lower subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(4), 933–947. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000391