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A Regime Theory of Joy

The Ease Regime as a Permissive Control Configuration

Author: Florian Morin
Year: 2026
Type: Preprint
Version: v1.0

Canonical version: https://florianmorin.com/papers/regime-of-joy

Archives versions:
SSRN DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6711318
Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20109239

Version history

v2, may 2, 2026 - Minor changes

v1.0 - Initial release.

Abstract

This paper proposes that intense positive affect, “joy”, is not produced by reward, learning, or goal-directed activity, but emerges from a distinct control regime, termed the ease regime. Access to this regime is governed by a threshold variable, Z, reflecting the degree of evaluative monitoring and optimization. When Z is high, cognition operates in an evaluation-dominated mode characterized by continuous correction, goal orientation, and performance tracking, constraining affective intensity. When Z falls below a critical threshold, evaluative processes fail to stabilize, allowing discrepancies to remain informational and enabling access to high-intensity positive affect.

Entry is abrupt, unambiguous, and not preceded by gradual improvement, consistent with a regime shift rather than a learning process. A central blocking mechanism, Zshift, is identified as a self-reinforcing loop in which attempts to recover the state induce persistent monitoring that prevents re-entry. The model predicts a measurement paradox: methods that recruit self-monitoring suppress the phenomenon they attempt to observe. The framework offers a falsifiable alternative to reward-based and training-based accounts, positioning joy as a threshold-dependent property of system dynamics rather than an outcome of optimization.

Main Claim

Joy is not best understood as a simple increase in ordinary pleasure. It is a threshold-dependent regime property that becomes accessible when evaluative monitoring and optimization no longer stabilize discrepancies at entry.

Core Predictions

• Abrupt, all-or-none entry rather than gradual learning curves.
• Systematic disruption under evaluative load, performance framing, or real-time self-monitoring.
• Dissociation from flow, meditative absorption, nostalgia, and standard reward-based accounts.
• A measurement paradox in which direct observation suppresses the target phenomenon.
• Strong sensitivity to contextual, structural, and accumulated evaluative load, formalized through Z.

Keywords

joy, positive affect, evaluative monitoring, optimization, regime shift, threshold dynamics, ease.

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How to cite

Morin, F. (2026). A Regime Theory of Joy: The Ease Regime as a Permissive Control Configuration. SSRN, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6711318

Archive

@article{morin2026regimetheoryjoy,
  title   = {A Regime Theory of Joy},
  subtitle = {The "Ease" Regime as a Permissive Control Configuration},
  author  = {Morin, Florian},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://florianmorin.com/papers/regime-of-joy}
 doi     = {dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6711318}
}