low sensation-seekers are introduced to something new
and unusual, they often reject it simply because it is
unfamiliar or unusual. It might be good to ask yourself,
“What’s the worst thing that could happen if I try this?”
We might be missing out on new and wonderful experi-
ences just for the fear of not liking it.So, while you may not take up Olympic skeleton racing
anytime soon, learning about sensation-seekers may inspire you
to expand your experiences a little more. As the father of flow
Csikszentmihalyi suggests “The best moments in our lives are not
the passive, receptive relaxing times...the best moments usually
occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in
a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and
worthwhile.”^2
I think high sensation-seekers could afford to have a little
more empathy for those of us who don’t have the nervous system or
environmental conditioning that creates the appetite for danger,
adventure, or novelty that they do. We low sensation-seekers are
your counterparts. You need us as anchors, as lookouts to prevent
too much danger and risk. If you think about it, since we feel more
risk and fear and tolerate it, we are the brave ones.
With that said, I think the opposite is also true. Those of us
on the lower sensation-seeking end of things could afford to stop
ogling at HSSs and assuming they are crazy thrill-seekers with
a death wish and no regard for life. I found this to be an almost
universally incorrect assumption. Like the rest of us, high sensa-
tion-seekers are complex, dynamic, puzzling, fascinating people
who find meaning and purpose in what they love to do – even if
what they love to do does kinda, sometimes look a little nuts to the
rest of us. I’m a geeky academic who prefers sunrises to flying
through breathtaking vistas in a squirrel suit. But I’m also a firm
believer in the incredible biological and social complexities that
make those experiences possible and even desirable for people who
find it thrilling. It would be a sadly diminished world if there were
no high sensation-seekers in it. However, I will continue to look on
in awe at the extraordinary things they do from a comfortable, safe
distance.179 / Conclusionterms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108557252.010
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