AdaptationLevel

Adaptation level is a psychological concept that describes the tendency for individuals to adjust their sensory, emotional, or cognitive reference points based on repeated exposure to stimuli. This adjustment means that what was once perceived as extreme or novel can become ordinary or even minimal over time, and vice versa. For example, a person moving from a very quiet environment to a noisy city might initially find the sounds overwhelming, but with continued exposure, they will likely adapt and perceive the noise level as more tolerable. Similarly, in sensory perception, adaptation level influences our judgment of stimuli. If you are constantly exposed to a particular taste, your sensitivity to it will decrease, and you might need a stronger concentration to perceive it as intensely as before.

This principle applies across various domains. In social psychology, adaptation level can explain how people become accustomed to certain social norms or living conditions, making them less sensitive to deviations or injustices they might have previously found unacceptable. In economics, it relates to hedonic adaptation, where people's happiness levels tend to return to a baseline despite major life events like winning the lottery or experiencing a severe injury. The adaptation level theory suggests that an individual's judgment of a stimulus is not based on an absolute scale but rather on a dynamically changing internal reference point that reflects their recent experiences. This internal reference point is a weighted average of past stimuli.