Notes

These notes give the sources behind the claims in each chapter, and say where I'm giving my own interpretation. The book isn't medical advice, and it isn't advice about whether you should move, change jobs or leave a relationship. If you're low most of the day, most days, for a fortnight or more, the NHS says to see a GP. The examples throughout, the property site at nine, the spare room, the promotion that came with a new manager, the forty-minute commute, the friend in the next town, are invented to illustrate and aren't drawn from real people.

Studies were checked on 26 September 2026 by reading their published abstracts, and for two of them the full abstract text from the journal record. None was read in full, and none carried a retraction or correction notice at that date. Several are panel studies, which follow the same people over years and are better than a single survey at showing change, but which still describe averages and can't say what will happen to any one reader, and I've tried to say so each time.

Chapter 1. No sources. The terms are the book's own.

Chapter 2. No research sources. The claim that some changes are fixes is the book's argument, developed in chapter 18.

Chapter 3. Boswell, Boudreau and Tichy, "The relationship between employee job change and job satisfaction: the honeymoon-hangover effect", Journal of Applied Psychology 90, 2005, pages 882 to 892. The abstract says "a sample of managers" and gives no number. Chadi and Hetschko, "The magic of the new: how job changes affect job satisfaction", Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 27, 2018, pages 23 to 39. German panel data. The claim that the season belongs to the choosing rather than the job is my reading of the plant-closure comparison.

Chapter 4. Schkade and Kahneman, "Does living in California make people happy? A focusing illusion in judgments of life satisfaction", Psychological Science 9, 1998, pages 340 to 346. Large samples of students, the abstract gives no number. The earlier book referred to is The good old days had problems too.

Chapter 5. Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz and Stone, "Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion", Science 312, 2006, pages 1908 to 1910. The earlier book referred to is You only saw the good bits. What the friend on the coast would say is my illustration.

Chapter 6. Diener, Lucas and Scollon, "Beyond the hedonic treadmill: revising the adaptation theory of well-being", American Psychologist 61, 2006, pages 305 to 314. A review. The distinction between a hum with a shape and a level, and the test for it, are mine and haven't been tested.

Chapter 7. Luhmann, Hofmann, Eid and Lucas, "Subjective well-being and adaptation to life events: a meta-analysis", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102, 2012, pages 592 to 615. 188 publications, 313 samples, 65,911 people. Lucas, Clark, Georgellis and Diener, "Reexamining adaptation and the set point model of happiness: reactions to changes in marital status", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84, 2003, pages 527 to 539. A 15-year panel of over 24,000 people in Germany. The coat is mine.

Chapter 8. Lucas, "Adaptation and the set-point model of subjective well-being: does happiness change after major life events?", Current Directions in Psychological Science 16, 2007, pages 75 to 79. A review. Lucas, Clark, Georgellis and Diener, "Unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction", Psychological Science 15, 2004, pages 8 to 13. The same German panel. The observation that the lasting changes are mostly losses is my reading of Lucas's list, and the advice to protect rather than chase follows from it and is mine.

Chapter 9. No research sources. The definition of content and the distinction between settling and choosing are mine.

Chapter 10. Wilson and Gilbert, "Affective forecasting: knowing what to want", Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 2005, pages 131 to 134. A review. Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg and Wheatley, "Immune neglect: a source of durability bias in affective forecasting", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75, 1998, pages 617 to 638. Six studies. That the same machinery shortens good feelings is my extension, though it follows the authors' own account of adaptation.

Chapter 11. Boswell and colleagues, and Chadi and Hetschko, as above. The earlier books referred to are The work will still be there and Leave it at work. The distinction between leaving because of and going to is mine.

Chapter 12. Luhmann and colleagues, as above, for relocation as one of the eight events. Schkade and Kahneman, as above. I looked for a study following people through a move to better housing and found Nakazato, Schimmack and Oishi 2011 in Social Indicators Research, but no abstract was available to me and I make no claim from it. The reasoning about commutes and gardens is mine.

Chapter 13. Lucas, Clark, Georgellis and Diener 2003, as above. Lucas, "Time does not heal all wounds: a longitudinal study of reaction and adaptation to divorce", Psychological Science 16, 2005, pages 945 to 950. An 18-year panel of more than 30,000 people in Germany. The earlier book referred to is The same argument again. The claim about the season of a new relationship doing the most damage is my view.

Chapter 14. Nelson, Kushlev and Lyubomirsky, "The pains and pleasures of parenting: when, why, and how is parenthood associated with more or less well-being?", Psychological Bulletin 140, 2014, pages 846 to 895. A review. Nelson, Kushlev, English, Dunn and Lyubomirsky, "In defense of parenthood: children are associated with more joy than misery", Psychological Science 24, 2013, pages 3 to 10. Three studies. Clark, Diener, Georgellis and Lucas, "Lags and leads in life satisfaction: a test of the baseline hypothesis", Economic Journal 118, 2008. The abstract I read was the 2007 working paper's. Anusic, Yap and Lucas, "Does personality moderate reaction and adaptation to major life events? Analysis of life satisfaction and affect in an Australian national sample", Journal of Research in Personality 51, 2014, pages 69 to 77. The reading that a child is a fix for an absence of meaning and not for a level is mine.

Chapter 15. Kahneman and colleagues 2006, as above. Killingsworth, "Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, 2021, article e2016976118. 1,725,994 reports from 33,391 employed adults in the United States. Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers, "Income and emotional well-being: a conflict resolved", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120, 2023, article e2208661120. The plain-words account of the logarithm as "each doubling adds about the same" is my gloss and the exact shape is in the papers.

Chapter 16. No research sources. The four costs are my observations. The book on putting life on hold until something arrives isn't yet written.

Chapter 17. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky, "The challenge of staying happier: testing the Hedonic Adaptation Prevention model", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38, 2012, pages 670 to 680. 481 students over three months. The claim that the size of the hope shortens the season is my extension of their aspiration route and hasn't been tested. The guest is mine.

Chapter 18. Wilson and Gilbert, and Schkade and Kahneman, as above, for what the method is built on. The Thursday question, the cause test and the honest paragraph are my method and haven't been tested as a package.

Chapter 19. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky, as above, for the two moderators. The earlier book referred to is Thank them now. What noticing and varying look like in a house or a job is my suggestion.

Chapter 20. The NHS page "5 steps to mental wellbeing", at nhs.uk, read on 26 September 2026. The earlier book referred to is A wish isn't a plan. The month is my suggestion.

Chapter 21. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts and Wardle, "How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world", European Journal of Social Psychology 40, 2010, pages 998 to 1009. 96 volunteers, 82 with usable data. The rule hasn't been tested and what I say to expect is my expectation.

Chapter 22. Luhmann and colleagues, as above, for retirement. The NHS pages on the symptoms of depression in adults and on domestic abuse, at nhs.uk, read on 26 September 2026. The earlier books referred to are Pick one and The same argument again.

Chapter 23. Lally and colleagues, as above. The extension from a missed day to an evening on the listings is mine.

Looked up and not used. Brickman, Coates and Janoff-Bulman's 1978 study of lottery winners is the one most often cited on this subject and rests on 22 winners. An earlier book in this series says why it's overstated, and it isn't cited here. Nakazato, Schimmack and Oishi 2011 on moving house, as noted under chapter 12. Kahneman and Deaton's 2010 paper on the income plateau is cited only through the 2023 reconciliation, since that paper reanalyses it. Cooney, Gilbert and Wilson's 2017 paper on the novelty penalty came up in searching and is about telling stories, not living them.