a "soft baseline". This means that for most people, this baseline is similar to their happiness baseline. Typically, life satisfaction hovers around a set point for the majority of their lives and not change dramatically. However, for about a quarter of the population this set point is not stable, and does indeed move in response to a major life event.

Other longitudinal data has shown that subjective well-being set points do change over time, and that adaptation is not necessarily inevitable. In his archival data analysis, Lucas found