and his colleagues speculated that some people were high sensa-
tion-seekers and some were not. High sensation-seekers, they fig-
ured, needed high amounts of stimulation and were irritated by
sensory deprivation. Meanwhile, low sensation-seekers weren’t
bothered by the lack of stimulation.
Yet even though Zuckerman’s team theorized that sensory
deprivation irritated high sensation-seekers, exactly this group of
people signed up for the experiment in droves. These prospective
subjects surprised the researchers not only because they were high
sensation-seekers who should have found the study boring and
frustrating, but also because they were non-conformists, a group
the researchers would never have imagined to be interested in
a tedious scientific experiment. These were the early 1960s,
where combed slick, closely shorn hair was the norm for men –
yet many guys with motorcycle jackets and long hair were eager to
volunteer for the study. Why would an experiment in dullness
bring the “hippies” out of the woodwork? The researchers were
stumped.
Apparently, information had circulated to these eager
volunteers: the sensory deprived experience had induced halluci-
nations for some of the early participants. The newcomers were
there to seek the sensation of the hallucinations, not for scientific
advancement or for financial compensation.
Zuckerman realized that sensation-seeking was not only
a quest for external stimulation as they originally thought. It
seemed as though high sensation-seekers wanted unique experi-
ences, too. He asserted that sensation-seekers are sensitive to their
experiences and choose stimulation that maximizes them.
Sensation can come from emotions, physical activities, clothes,
food, or even other people. Someone with a high sensation-
seeking personality actively pursues experiences.
Because of this active pursuit of new experiences, sensa-
tion-seeking doesn’t just describe reactions to a sensory deprivation
experience. Sensation-seeking can reach into every aspect of life. It
can affect your choice of activities, the way you interact with other
people, the things you do for fun, the music you like, the jokes you
make, and even the way you drive.
If you think of sensation-seeking as a continuum, high
sensation-seekers are at one end. They are always seeking new
experiences, even if (and in some cases because) they come with
risks. Low sensation-seekers, on the other hand, may actively avoid13 / What is Sensation-SeekingDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:54, subject to the Cambridge