with them. They even attempted to condition a fear response by
exposing her to loud horns and other harsh sounds – but even that
didn’t work. In one of the studies she was asked to draw a face with
a fearful expression. She wasn’t even able to conjure an image of
a fearful face in her mind.
SM reports actuallyenjoyingthe extreme situations in her
life. Instead of running away, she turns to face them. Being held at
knife point wasn’t a bad thing for her, because she didn’t experi-
ence the horror the rest of us would. In fact, she describes herself as
quite happy, “9 out of 10,” she says.
It sounds familiar doesn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, high
sensation-seekers obviouslydohave fear. That said, we also know
that high sensation-seekers respond to fear differently than most of
us do all the way down to the neurochemical level. They are able to
remain calm in extreme circumstances that would send most of us
running, and it affects not only the way they perceive those experi-
ences but also the impact the experiences have on them as well.Sensation-Seeking and Trauma
Dover is a major ferry port in south-east England. Across the Strait
of Dover is the port of Zeebrugge, a village on the coast of Belgium.
It’s just 84 nautical miles from Zeebrugge to Dover. The trip takes
approximately 3 hours by passenger and car ferry. People drive
their cars on to the ferry so they can use them once they arrive in
the next city. It’s a typical roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. However,
on March 6, 1987, the roll-on/roll-off passenger ferryHerald of Free
Enterpriseleft Zeebrugge carrying 459 passengers and 80 crew. It’s
suspected that someone left the bow door open and when the ferry
left port, water rushed into it. It flooded and capsized immediately.
A total of 193 people died in the frigid waters.^5 As you can imagine it
was an incredibly traumatic experience.
Five years later, researchers Stephen Joseph, Chris Brewin,
William Yule, and Ruth Williams found 35 survivors of the disaster
and had all of them complete a series of psychological
questionnaires.^6 The researchers discovered that those with high
PTSD symptoms scored higher on impulsiveness than those low in
PTSD symptoms.
What seems to happen with some people who survive trau-
matic events is a greater pursuit of risk. As a consequence, they look
for dangerous situations to explore. Because of this relationship,163 / Super Power or Super ProblemDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:43, subject to the Cambridge