Buzz Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers

a sports bra, and covered in paint.”^22 Rather than running the 2016

London Marathon in typical sports gear, Sophie decided to use the

opportunity to tell her story by painting her body with inspirational

messages and even some of her fears (and a sprinkling of gems and

glitter too). She had her mother snap a photo for Facebook. Her

mother tried to talk her out of it, fearing she was making herself too

vulnerable. Sophie’s response? She did it anyway. She explained

“There’s no point in going half way in, to test the water to see what

happens. It has to be all or nothing, and that’s the way I live.”

She’s not alone. Lots of high sensation-seekers with high

scores in disinhibition live life this way. When they try a new food

for the first time, they don’t take a nibble, they open their mouths

and take the biggest bite possible and deal with the fallout later.

Boredom Susceptibility

The last component of sensation-seeking is boredom susceptibil-

ity, which boils down to one’s ability to tolerate the absence of

external stimuli. Those with high scores in boredom susceptibility

dislike repetition and they get irritated when nothing is going on.

People with high boredom susceptibility also tire easily of predict-

able or boring people, and they get restless when things are the

same.

My scores for boredom susceptibility hover near the bot-

tom. I almost never get bored. I remember waiting in line for the

original iPhone, over a decade ago. At that time you couldn’t order

it in advance. You had to wait in line to be one of the first to get the

device. So I did. I waited in line over 5 hours with not much to do (I

couldn’t fiddle with my phone – because I was waiting for one of

the first smart phones). It was a situation similar to what

Zuckerman’s original sensory deprivation participants had to

endure, except I had a Cinnabon across the way. How did I cope

with the lack of entertainment? Easily. Even telling this story to

my friends with a higher boredom susceptibility score seems to

irritate them.

Interpreting Your Scores

The Brief Sensation-Seeking Survey (or BSSS) reveals five scores: one

for each component of sensation-seeking and a total sensation-seeking

20 / Buzz!

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