HSSs are really no different than the rest of us when it
comes to their motivations, except of course some of their motiva-
tions have to do with increasing sensations and having a high
tolerance for activities that create sensation.
I talked to Ava, an HSS public relations specialist, about her
friendships. Ava loves to be in the air. “I love doing new things. I’m
constantly trying to go on adventures and do new things. I like
scuba diving, skydiving, I like exploring the air and the water.
I like hiking, roller coasters, bungee jumping, or parasailing. Oh,
and zip lining. I love, love, LOVE zip lining. Anything that’s some-
how like flying.” Ava’s been a thrill-seeker since she was a kid. “By
fourth grade,” she recalls, “I was wearing ‘No Fear’ shirts every
single day. That was the beginning of me having this no fear atti-
tude and just doing whatever.”
Researchers have found that the higher your total sensa-
tion-seeking score, the more friends you are likely to have.^8 This
doesn’t mean that average or low sensation-seekers have trouble
making friends or make bad friends, it may just mean that sensa-
tion-seekers desire more friends to help them do the things they
love doing or just to get to know. Clearly, sensation-seekers are
more likely to bump into other sensation-seekers involved in simi-
lar activities. So, you’d imagine that high sensation-seekers have
lots of HSS friends. What’s more, remember how HSSs love to
disclose information? Self-disclosure of personal details is an
important aspect of friendship.^9
Lynn says “As friends go, the thrill-seekers find each other.
Especially the ones that want to do things that are on the edge.”
In some cases, this may be true. But this isn’t universally the
case. Research has shown that sensation-seekers are drawn to peo-
ple who do the things they love doing, but sensation-seekers find all
sorts of things about people interesting, so they are also attracted to
people who are dissimilar to them.^10
This might be because learning about someone different
from them is part of the thrill. But it also means that some HSSs
feel misunderstood by their friends.
Ava’s experience bears this out. “I feel like I have a lot of
friends, and I have a lot of different kinds of friends. But usually
when I’m doing something that’s a bit scary, it’s solo. I’m constantly
inviting people to do things with me.” They usually don’t. Why not?
Most of her friends aren’t thrill-seekers. Her response to them?
“Mais fica,” which is Portuguese for “more for me.”98 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:21:35, subject to the Cambridge