Researchers concluded that it is attention that plays a crucial role for the quality
and intensity of an experience and that individual attention is high when something
is new. With time, however, the fraction of attention concentrated on the new thing
goes down and so does its influence on one’s general state of well-being. Working
with attention lies at the heart of mindfulness practices and therapeutic strategies
deployed to cure the increasing number of people that burn out in hedonic treadmill
civilizations.
Constantly keeping attention on what ubiquitous advertising is suggesting one
lacks in one’s life and what others have that is better is not a good recipe for
happiness. Neurosciences show that mental activity creates neuronal structures and,
depending on which skills people use most or what they pay attention to regularly,
some wirings and associations of their brain become more connected. Some parts
even grow physically bigger. So if societies create attention architectures that keep
people concentrated on accumulation and monetary expressions of value, this
influences their ideas about a good life, the best need-satisfaction strategies and,
ultimately, their experienced happiness (Hanson 2009: 18). Neurosciences and
biochemical research also tell us that a brain processing massive excitement would
fry if it did this over longer periods of time. Accumulating limitless stacks of
happiness is thus neither possible nor desirable. Happiness is a flow phenomenon
rather than a stock that can be hoarded. Its measurement takes place on a scale
between high and low and its levels are expected to fluctuate. It is not measured
with aggregated growth curves.
Psychologists like Tim Kasser provide more scientific evidence against the
conflation of more gain with more happiness, and also against the ‘law’ that all
humans are naturally wired toward competitive accumulation. He shows how
experienced well-being of even materially wealthy lives seems to decrease if too
much attention is given to economic indicators and the satisfier strategies of having.
3.1.4 How Does a Homo Economicus Feel and Act?
The technical term for what has become the ‘representative agent’ in mainstream
economic models is ‘Homo economicus.’ Its character is the embodiment of the first
law of the human condition: constantly seeking to improve the hedonic calculus and
constantly comparing and competing with others over scarce resources and best
offers. The cost–benefit analyses that this agent undertakes lie at the heart of
explaining human behavior and the choices that should be expected. The financial
crisis has shown how helpful the resulting predictions are for complex real world
dynamics. But this is not the topic at hand. We want to stay with the assessment of how
key ideas and concepts of the mainstream economic paradigm not only limit which
development solutions are imaginable and justifiable but also how their incorporation
in culture and institutions drives societies away from sustainable outcomes.
72
3 Why the Mainstream Economic Paradigm Cannot Inform …
and intensity of an experience and that individual attention is high when something
is new. With time, however, the fraction of attention concentrated on the new thing
goes down and so does its influence on one’s general state of well-being. Working
with attention lies at the heart of mindfulness practices and therapeutic strategies
deployed to cure the increasing number of people that burn out in hedonic treadmill
civilizations.
Constantly keeping attention on what ubiquitous advertising is suggesting one
lacks in one’s life and what others have that is better is not a good recipe for
happiness. Neurosciences show that mental activity creates neuronal structures and,
depending on which skills people use most or what they pay attention to regularly,
some wirings and associations of their brain become more connected. Some parts
even grow physically bigger. So if societies create attention architectures that keep
people concentrated on accumulation and monetary expressions of value, this
influences their ideas about a good life, the best need-satisfaction strategies and,
ultimately, their experienced happiness (Hanson 2009: 18). Neurosciences and
biochemical research also tell us that a brain processing massive excitement would
fry if it did this over longer periods of time. Accumulating limitless stacks of
happiness is thus neither possible nor desirable. Happiness is a flow phenomenon
rather than a stock that can be hoarded. Its measurement takes place on a scale
between high and low and its levels are expected to fluctuate. It is not measured
with aggregated growth curves.
Psychologists like Tim Kasser provide more scientific evidence against the
conflation of more gain with more happiness, and also against the ‘law’ that all
humans are naturally wired toward competitive accumulation. He shows how
experienced well-being of even materially wealthy lives seems to decrease if too
much attention is given to economic indicators and the satisfier strategies of having.
3.1.4 How Does a Homo Economicus Feel and Act?
The technical term for what has become the ‘representative agent’ in mainstream
economic models is ‘Homo economicus.’ Its character is the embodiment of the first
law of the human condition: constantly seeking to improve the hedonic calculus and
constantly comparing and competing with others over scarce resources and best
offers. The cost–benefit analyses that this agent undertakes lie at the heart of
explaining human behavior and the choices that should be expected. The financial
crisis has shown how helpful the resulting predictions are for complex real world
dynamics. But this is not the topic at hand. We want to stay with the assessment of how
key ideas and concepts of the mainstream economic paradigm not only limit which
development solutions are imaginable and justifiable but also how their incorporation
in culture and institutions drives societies away from sustainable outcomes.
72
3 Why the Mainstream Economic Paradigm Cannot Inform …