In the land of seatbelts and safety helmets, the leisure pursuit of
dangeris a growth industry. Some experts say that courting uncertainty is
the only way to protect the inner force America was founded on. Or to
define the self.
RISKY BUSINESS HAS NEVER BEEN MORE POPULAR. MOUNTAIN CLIMBING IS
AMONG AMERICA'S FASTEST GROWING SPORTS. Extreme skiing--in which skiers
descend cliff-like runs by dropping from ledge to snow-covered ledge--is
drawing wider interest. Sports like paragliding and cliff-parachuting are
marching into the recreational mainstream while the adventurer-travel
business, which often mixes activities like climbing or river rafting
with wildlife safaris, has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry.
"Forget the beach," declared Newsweek last year. "We're hot for mountain
biking, river running, ice climbing, and bungee jumping.
Thirty-six-year-old Derek Hersey knew a thing or two about life on
the edge. Where most rock climbers used ropes and other safety gear, the
wiry, wise-cracking Brit usually climbed "free solo"--alone, using
nothing but climbing shoes, finger chalk, and his wits. As one climbing
buddy put it, Hersey went "for the adrenaline and risk," and on May 28,
1993, he got a dose of both. High on the face of Yosemite's Sentinel
Rock, Hersey met with rain and, apparently, slick rock. Friends who found
the battered body reckon he fell several hundred feet. In the
not-too-distant past, students of human behavior might have explained
Hersey's fall as death-wish fulfillment. Under conventional personality
theories, normal individuals do everything possible to avoid tension and
risk.
In fact, as researchers are discovering, the psychology of risk
involves far more than a simple "death wish." Studies now indicate that
the inclination to take high risks may be hard-wired into the brain,
intimately linked to arousal and pleasure mechanisms, and may offer such
a thrill that it functions like an addiction. The tendency probably
affects one in five people, mostly young males, and declines with age. It
may ensure our survival, even spur our evolution as individuals and as a
species. Risk taking probably bestowed a crucial evolutionary advantage,
inciting the fighting and foraging of the hunter-gatherer.
In mapping out the mechanisms of risk, psychologists hope to do
more than explain why people climb mountains. Risk-taking, which one
researcher defines as "engaging in any activity with an uncertain
outcome," arises in nearly all walks of life. Asking someone on a date,
accepting a challenging work assignment, raising a sensitive issue with a
spouse or a friend, confronting an abusive boss--all involve uncertain
outcomes, and present some level of risk. Understanding the psychology of
risk, understanding why some individuals will take chances and others
won't, could have important consequences in everything from career
counseling to programs for juvenile delinquents.
Researchers don't yet know precisely how a risk taking impulse
arises from within or what role is played by environmental factors, from
upbringing to the culture at large. And, while some level of risk taking
is dearly necessary for survival (try crossing a busy street without it),
scientists are divided as to whether, in a modern society, a "high-risk
gene" is still advantageous. Some scientists, like Frank Farley, Ph.D., a
University of Wisconsin psychologist and past president of the American
Psychological Association, see a willingness to take big risks as
essential for success. The same inner force that pushed Derek Hersey,
Farley argues, may also explain why some dare to run for office, launch a
corporate raid, or lead a civil-rights demonstration.
Yet research has also revealed the darker side of risk taking.
High-risk takers are easily bored and may suffer low job satisfaction.
Their craving for stimulation can make them more likely to abuse drugs,
gamble, commit crimes, and be promiscuous. As psychologist Salvadore
Maddi, Ph.D., of the University of California-Davis warns, high-risk
takers may "have a hard time deriving meaning and purpose from everyday
life."
Indeed, this peculiar form of dissatisfaction could help explain
the explosion of high-risk sports in America and other postindustrial
Western nations. In unstable cultures, such as those at war or suffering
poverty, people rarely seek out additional thrills. But in a rich and
safety-obsessed country like America, land of guardrails, seat belts, and
personal-injury lawsuits, everyday life may have become too safe,
predictable, and boring for those programmed for risk-taking.
In an unsettling paradox, our culture's emphasis on security and
certainty--two defining elements of a "civilized" society--may not only
be fostering the current risk taking wave, but could spawn riskier
activities in the future. "The safer we try to make life," cautions
psychologist Michael Aptor, Ph.D, a visiting professor at Yale and author
of The Dangerous Edge: The Psychology of Excitement, "the more people may
take on risks."
UNIQUE WAVELENGTHS
In Icicle Canyon, a towering rocky corridor in the Cascade
Mountains of Washington state, this strange interplay between safety and
risk is a common sight. When weather permits, the canyon's formidable
walls swarm with fit-looking men and women, using improbably small ledges
and cracks to hoist themselves upward. For novices, risk can be kept to a
minimum. Beginners' climbs are "top-roped" by a line running from the
climber to a fixed cliff-top anchor and back down to a partner on the
ground.
