You can trick yourself into being happy ... if you make life worse first | Oliver Burkeman

Once a certain level of income or comfort becomes your default position, you can be sure it'll stop delivering pleasure by contrast with earlier experiences

A couple of years ago, I got to fly in the ultra-luxurious business class of an especially high-end airline; and now all lesser air travel - which means all other air travel, basically - is ruined for me forever. I'm not expecting an outpouring of sympathy for my plight. But I did feel a flicker of vindication when I read, via Scientific American, about a new study on the psychology of restaurant diners: serve them a really delicious appetizer followed by a mediocre main course, it seems, and they'll rate the main course much more negatively than if had been preceded by something equally mediocre.

The researchers - whose results were published in the appropriately titled journal Food Quality and Preference - gave participants a boring pasta dish, preceded by an appetizer of bruschetta, made either with excellent fresh ingredients, or uninspiring dried ones. The resulting difference in their assessments of the pasta illustrates a phenomenon known as "hedonic contrast", and it's a familiar one to food psychologists and restaurateurs alike: what counts as tasty depends on what came before. If you're planning to dine at Olive Garden, don't pop into Nobu for a quick amuse-bouche first.