All eyes on you: The social audience and hedonic adaptation

Abstract Marketers have a keen interest in keeping customers happy past the point of product acquisition. However, consumer happiness with products typically declines over time, a process called “hedonic adaptation.” Understanding this process is essential for managing consumers' post‐acquisition experiences, and yet marketers have not explored how the ubiquitous social environment influences hedonic adaptation. We explore the effect of a social audience (i.e., the presence of others and the perception that those others are noticing you) on adaptation to positive products using two real‐world studies and one lab study. We show that a social audience can slow hedonic adaptation by cuing consumers to believe that others are admiring their product. This perceived admiration, in turn, helps consumers see the product through fresh, unadapted eyes. These findings help clarify the role of the consumption environment in adaptation, help explain why product happiness can vary by consumer over time, and show that the effects of social forces do not always occur at the moment of product acquisition.