post. I was like, ‘I’m going to aim for that.’ We’re flying down
the hill. People got out of our way and I grabbed the pole and
rolledarounditthreeorfourtimes.I’mlaughing.Sheilais
laughing. Everyone is laughing. And I didn’t die. There was
this feeling of zero fear...you have no fear. You actually get
more calm and more focused and more centered. It’s the oppo-
site. It’s really weird to describe it. It’s a sensation that when
you’re just in the movement and in the moment, there is no
place better on Earth. No place.”
Pam’s ability to navigate the streets of Chicago was
heightened by her ability to not become overwhelmed by the
sensations she experienced. What’s more, as a high sensation-
seeker she probably perceived the activity to be less risky than
it actually was, while average and low sensation-seekers may see
these activities as way too risky. We know that high sensation-
seekers interpret the world a bit differently and they see the
environment around them as less risky.^11 They simply don’t
view the activity as dangerous, risky, or threatening in the
ways in which their lower sensation-seeking friends would.
Remember the approach and avoidance systems we discussed
inChapter 2? Because their bodies produce fewer stress hor-
mones during high-risk activities, and the “stress” button does
not get pushed, they may think situations are less risky. They
don’t feel stress in the same way.
You might think that high sensation-seekers’ penchant for
risky ventures makes them more likely to have injuries, but one
study of high school athletes found that sensation-seeking was
unrelated to injuries.^12 Another group of researchers studied
patients undergoing physical rehabilitation. They didn’t find
more high sensation-seekers in that group, either.^13 The better
you are at something, the less dangerous it’s likely to be. Risk is
related to skill. Perhaps people with high sensation-seeking person-
alities have fewer accidents because they have a higher skill level in
the risky activity. What’s more, high sensation-seekers tend to
bounce back more quickly from injuries and are more likely to
resume the activity in fewer days (perhaps the pain doesn’t bother
them as much).^14 On the other hand, low sensation-seekers tend to
be more stressed by injuries and more likely to abandon the activity
after an injury.^15 So not only do high sensation-seekers perceive
risk differently, but also their experience of risky activities tends to
be less, well, risky.71 / Sports and Adventure in High Sensation-SeekingDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:19:03, subject to the Cambridge