When We're Happy, We Actively Sabotage Our Good Moods With Grim Tasks (arstechnica.com)

Beth Mole, writing for Ars Technica: Always keeping your house tidy and spotless may earn you the label of "neat freak" -- but "super happy" may be a more accurate tag. When people voluntarily take on unpleasant tasks such as housework, they tend to be in particularly happy states, according to a new study on hedonism. The finding challenges an old prediction by some researchers that humans can be constant pleasure-seekers. Instead, the new study suggests we might seek out fun, uplifting activities mainly when we're in bad or down moods. But when we're on the up, we're more likely to go for the dull and dreary assignments. This finding of "flexible hedonism," reported this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may seem counterintuitive because it suggests we sabotage our own high spirits. But it hints at the idea that humans tend to make sensible short-term trade-offs on happiness for long-term gains. "Although our data cannot directly tell us whether regularly engaging in unpleasant activities predicts psychological and social adjustment five or 10 years down the line, a large body of work has consistently demonstrated the importance of sleeping, employment, and living in a reasonably clean and organized home on mental and physical health," according to the study authors, led by Maxime Taquet of Harvard and Jordi Quoidbach of the University Pompeu Fabra in Spain.

Comments

Not sought out because they're "grim"

[Pfhorrest]

When I am comfortable and without external pressures for a while, two things happen. One, I get bored and want to do something. Two, I'm full of positive energy and want to apply that to making something somewhere better. So I start to do things, like clean house, or work on neglected projects, or sometimes starting a new project. I'm not seeking out "grim" things to spoil my good mood. I'm seeking out good things, things that I want to have done, that I've finally got the emotional energy to do.

This result is like saying "study finds that when people have too much money, they seek to get rid of it by spending it on things, contradicting assumptions that people generally want to have more money". No, of course not. They've just finally got enough money that they can spend it on things they want to. They still want more money in the future, so that they can use it to buy other things.

Likewise, happy people doing "grim" tasks aren't trying to get rid of their "excess" happiness, they've just finally got the emotional energy to spend doing things. They still want more happiness, so they can spend that emotional energy doing more things.