"In hedonic reversal, a stimulus that initially causes a pleasant or unpleasant response does not just dissipate or fade away, as Irvine describes, but rather the initial feeling leads to an opposite secondary emotion or sensation. Remarkably, the secondary reaction is often deeper or longer lasting than the initial reaction. And what is more, when the stimulus is repeated many times, the initial response becomes weaker and the secondary response becomes stronger and lasts longer."
Is this an example? Exposure to peanuts can substantially reduce the chance of becoming allergic to peanuts, according to a recent finding. News report, paper on "Randomized Trial of Peanut Consumption in Infants at Risk for Peanut Allergy".
To the fun theory, hedonic treadmill sequences.
http://gettingstronger.org/hormesis/
TL;DR stoicism with science.
Key idea: OPT, Opponent Process Theory: http://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/
Research, PDF: http://gettingstronger.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Solomon-Opponent-Process-1980.pdf
From the article:
"In hedonic reversal, a stimulus that initially causes a pleasant or unpleasant response does not just dissipate or fade away, as Irvine describes, but rather the initial feeling leads to an opposite secondary emotion or sensation. Remarkably, the secondary reaction is often deeper or longer lasting than the initial reaction. And what is more, when the stimulus is repeated many times, the initial response becomes weaker and the secondary response becomes stronger and lasts longer."