I’m working on an MA in nonfiction writing. In 2015, I wrote a research paper concerning happiness levels among Boston Red Sox fans after their beloved team finally won a World Series. The Hedonic Treadmill principle, essentially, maintains that humans adapt to “good” or “bad” events quickly and return to their baseline happiness level. One reason is that humans change their expectations with success – maybe three cars was enough, but now I want four. Then I’ll be happy. Actually, wait. I need another. In any case, I wondered if, after the initial euphoria faded 1) Sox fans might return to their pre-World Series-winning happiness level; and/or 2) feel worse due to losing their collective group identity as “cursed.” I based my research on one particularly enthusiastic writer, the voice of the Sox fan, by studying five years of columns from the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy.
What did I find? Just ask.
Last week I was thrilled to meet and talk baseball research with the legendary Doris Kearns Goodwin, renowned presidential scholar and Sox devotee.
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