Like a lot of TV viewers these days, we binge-watch our favorite shows, consuming two, three or more episodes - sometimes entire seasons - at a time.


That's the lesson from new research in the field of positive psychology. This research shows that indulging in life's pleasures in smaller doses, or even giving them up for stretches of time, helps us enjoy them significantly more.


When all 55 people ate another piece of chocolate at the end of the week, those who had abstained reported significantly greater happiness than either the bingers or the people left to their own devices.

In fact, the bingers reported feeling less happy after their end-of-week chocolate than they'd felt after eating their piece at the start of the week.

While this is the first study to find that temporarily giving up something pleasurable may be good for our happiness, it builds on years of similar results. One study found that people enjoyed an episode of the old sitcom "Taxi" more if it included commercials than if it did not. In another recent paper, people reported greater enjoyment of positive experiences (sitting in a massage chair, listening to Japanese hip-hop) when those experiences were briefly interrupted.

As it turns out, people tend to get used to sources of joy and pleasure very quickly. And when you have more of something pleasurable, it becomes easier to take it for granted, and harder to savor it. The result is a psychic numbing to the good things in life.

While that numbing effect may seem obvious, we're generally unaware of it in our own lives: Studies show that people (mistakenly) think that getting more of the things they value will make them happier.

At the same time, we tend to underestimate how consuming in moderation might boost our enjoyment - and happiness - in the long run: Participants in the "Taxi," massage chair and Japanese hip-hop studies all thought the experience would be more enjoyable without interruptions. They were wrong.

So much of our everyday behavior is driven by the misconception that more is better. We celebrate our most important holidays by cooking and eating twice as much food as we need. We work hard to get a promotion - then after we get it, we start thinking about the next one.

This same misconception about happiness leads many people to covet wealth and material things. Research suggests that more money can bring us more happiness, but only until we earn up to about $75,000 a year. After that, there seems to be a negligible increase in happiness from making more money, meaning that many of us waste a lot of time pursuing a happiness we'll never reach. Or worse, our single-minded pursuit of wealth stresses us out, compromises our values and strains our relationships.

All of this research points to a paradox of happiness: It's not tied to abundance but to recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

Coincidentally, millions of Americans have been getting a jump-start on moderation with their observance over the past month of Lent.

For many Christians, this is supposed to be a period of repentance and self-denial to strengthen spiritual life. It is a time to give up meat, chocolate, sex and other indulgences as a way to atone for sins. But the research by Quoidbach and Dunn suggests it may carry some other benefits: Denying themselves certain pleasures for 40 days may ultimately make people happier than consistently indulging in them. In other words, a religious ritual of renunciation might feel pretty good in the end.

At a time when science and religion are often seen as at odds with one another, it's encouraging to see them both validate a basic, counterintuitive message: Sometimes we get a lot from giving stuff up.

Jason Marsh is the editor in chief at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. Robb Willer is an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.