Something psychologists have known for decades explains why many of us deer hunters are so unhappy these days. It’s time we all learn what it’s about and work toward keeping our community strong.

And remember: There’s strength in numbers. North America is home to 11.2 million whitetail hunters. We should always want more, but maintaining this base level should be our ground-floor expectation. However, if you go by what folks are teeing off about on social media these days, there’s a whole lot of people out there who don’t want to share the woods with anyone.

This is especially true if they go against what I call today’s Big 3 Blowups:

1. Baiting

Let’s get one thing straight: Baiting bans are not about disease management.

First off, there are no definitive studies showing that baiting spreads diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD). Second, if baiting was truly a disease threat, then surely we wouldn’t allow people to plant a half-acre of something like purple-top turnips, which puts more food on the ground (up to 4,000 pounds from one planting) with markedly higher chances of nose-to-nose contact.

Deer pick up the mature bulbs, chew them, drop them and move on — all while urinating and defecating in the same area for weeks, if not months, until the food source is gone.

It’s not about fair chase.

Baiting doesn’t guarantee you’ll see a deer. It improves the odds. The exact same thing is true with food plots, agricultural crops and apple orchards. Guys who claim food plots are different would sing a much different tune if you told them they couldn’t hunt over them. Yes, you stand a higher chance of seeing deer in all of these scenarios (baiting, food plots, ag fields), but you are not guaranteed of filling a tag.

It is about selfishness.

The majority of people who oppose baiting want more opportunities for themselves. They want to see more deer, have more deer show up during daylight hours, and put more deer in their freezers — or “let them go so they can grow bigger next year.”

They do not want someone else’s bait pulling deer away from their properties.

It is about jealousy.

The majority of people who oppose baiting become frustrated when one of “their” deer is shot by someone else — and even worse (gasp!), when it is shot from a baited site.

2. Crossbows

Read the above section about baiting, then rinse and repeat.

People who oppose crossbows often don’t want to share the woods. They believe their way is the right way, and if someone isn’t pulling back a compound bow or a recurve, then they don’t belong.

News flash: Crossbows were here long before modern compound bows and recurves, having been invented in the seventh century B.C. They have also been legal for deer hunting in states such as Arkansas for more than 50 years.

People who oppose crossbows are often upset that someone might shoot “their” buck before they do. They’re also fearful that a youth hunter, senior citizen or disabled hunter will shoot bigger bucks — or simply more deer — because of the special seasons afforded to those hunters.

Opponents of crossbows also routinely use arguments comparing them to firearms, sometimes calling them “crossguns,” in an attempt to vilify the tool. It is similar to how some politicians describe semiautomatic firearms as “weapons of war” without understanding how they function.

The fact is, crossbows are short-range tools — 50 yards and under for most users — that kill deer through hemorrhaging caused by a broadhead attached to a fletched arrow shaft.

Detractors will immediately respond, “It’s called a bolt!” somehow believing that changing the terminology makes a short, fletched carbon shaft fundamentally different.

The fact remains that crossbows are here to stay during archery seasons. Crossbow hunters now account for well over 60% of the bowhunting population in nearly every state where they are legal.

Get over yourselves. There are more than 32 million deer in America, and the woods are big enough for all of us.

3. Nonresident Envy

“We could be more like Iowa if we only …”

Guys will usually fill in that blank with: increase the cost of the license; issue fewer nonresident tags; institute a draw system; or reduce buck tags to 1 per year.

This mindset is gaining momentum across North America. I’ve seen it here in Wisconsin and observed it in other hunter-heavy states such as Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.

It usually goes something like this: A hunter sees the giant bucks being harvested in places like Iowa on television or social media, and immediately thinks or says, “I wish we had opportunities like that.”

There are many reasons why they don’t, but it ultimately boils down to numbers.

Those other states have upward of five times the number of hunters Iowa does. Iowa also has some of the richest soils in the nation. It’s the perfect storm: great soil, abundant food, good deer numbers and relatively few hunters.

That combination gives Iowa an advantage over nearly every other state.

Be happy for them, but stop fooling yourself into thinking your state can replicate Iowa. It can’t. Well, unless you tell a couple hundred thousand guys and gals they can no longer hunt in your state.

The same mentality applies to those who believe reducing buck bag limits will solve every problem other than their own desire for bigger bucks.

The Hedonic Treadmill

The above scenarios are examples of what psychologists call the hedonic treadmill also known as hedonic adaptation. It is the idea that humans quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness or dissatisfaction despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

According to this theory, as a person experiences more success, expectations and desires rise in tandem, resulting in no permanent increase in happiness.

There are three processes involved in hedonic adaptation: shifting adaptation levels, desensitization and sensitization.

Shifting adaptation levels occur when a person experiences a change in what is perceived as a “neutral” stimulus but maintains sensitivity to differences in that stimulus.

For example, John shoots his first 130-inch buck. He initially experiences tremendous excitement, but eventually that buck becomes his new baseline. Over time, desensitization occurs, and a 130-inch buck no longer provides the same satisfaction.

Then sensitization sets in. Continued exposure raises the bar even higher, creating expectations that may become impossible to achieve.

This is where many hunters begin the downward cycle of blaming others for their circumstances, longing for better opportunities and demanding third-party action from state or local agencies — often with the underlying intention of improving their own situation.

It’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve seen it play out time and time again among our deer hunting community.

The inability to “keep up with the Joneses” can create dissatisfaction, even among people who are successful. This is the essence of the hedonic treadmill: The belief that increased income, status or material possessions can create lasting happiness, when in reality expectations often simply rise to match those gains.