The allure of adventure
Although the extreme sports community has historically been viewed as thrill seekers with a death wish, studies have shown that these generalizations are usually inaccurate. “People who participate in these sports typically have spent a lot of time training and preparing to understand the environment,” said psychologist Eric Brymer, PhD, a researcher at Southern Cross University and the Manna Institute in Australia who specializes in studying extreme sports. “They may be doing something dangerous and may experience fear, but this does not necessarily mean they are taking foolish risks while doing the activities.”
Forensic psychiatrist Erik Monasterio, MD, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand, has climbed in the Andes, Himalayas, New Zealand, and Alaska, and he was eager to learn why he had been drawn to adventure sports since his youth. Using the Temperament and Character Inventory, he recently studied the personality traits of BASE jumpers and mountaineers who had at least 5 years of experience in their sport. The data showed that they were highly adventurous in temperament and organized in character, which meant they were self-directed, cooperative, and disciplined (Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9, 2019opens in new window). “These people are not reckless,” said Monasterio. “Risk is not the main motivation but rather something that pushes them to focus and achieve mastery in their activities.”
Monasterio was surprised to discover that 75% of the BASE jumpers and 85% of the mountaineers were low in “self-transcendence,” or openness to altruism and spirituality. People low in self-transcendence can be proud, impatient, and self-preoccupied, and they often struggle to accept failure, he said. “This helps us understand why mountaineers with mature personalities will sometimes regress to reckless, self-serving, and potentially criminal behavior to achieve a goal,” he said. “They may walk past dying mountaineers or steal another climber’s oxygen tank and equipment.”
Like other adventure sport researchers, Susan Houge Mackenzie, PhD, a sports psychologist and associate professor in the department of tourism at the University of Otago in New Zealand, suspected that thrill seeking was not the primary draw for participants. To explore the psychological effects of these experiences, her team interviewed 84 experts in six adventure activities, including big wave surfing, downhill mountain biking, free solo climbing, and wingsuit BASE jumping (a form of BASE jumping using a garment that allows people to glide through the air).
One of the predominant motives identified was the emotional diversity experienced during the activity, such as nervous anticipation, excitement, peace, relief, confidence, and a sense of accomplishment. They also enjoyed exercising expertise in the face of big challenges, and a sense of creativity as they made decisions during the activity (Leisure Sciences, online first publication, 2022opens in new window). “The findings suggested that people were focused on benefits like self-actualization, finding purpose and meaning in life, emotion regulation, and deepening connections to nature and to other people,” Houge Mackenzie said.
In another study, participants reported that the adventure-based mindsets they had acquired from activities such as backcountry skiing, white water kayaking, and rock climbing helped them cope during lockdowns and isolation caused by COVID-19 (Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Vol. 62, 2022opens in new window). “They had learned how to be resilient, flexible, to focus on elements they could control, and practice humility, and they put these skills into practice during the pandemic,” said Houge Mackenzie. For example, one kayaker reported that “going with the flow and learning that in a river you have to have a plan B, C, and D, you might get to plan D and realize that doesn’t work either…and that ability to be really flexible and understand that sometimes there are bigger forces at play [is useful].” A rock climber reported how the continual need to focus on controllable elements during rock climbing, such as controlled breathing to avoid falling, helped him to focus on the things he could control during quarantine.
Helping the brain choose safety
Even though the risk of death may be higher driving on a highway than jumping off a cliff with a parachute, the odds of encountering a potentially fatal situation increase with the number of exposures. To reduce the chances of fatalities, researchers are exploring the human factors that can influence decision processes, such as heuristic traps. Heuristic traps include the “expert halo,” or trusting a group member who is perceived to be more experienced to make the right decision, and “acceptance,” or the tendency to engage in activities that will be noticed and accepted by a group.
Hetland is part of an international team of scientists from Norway, Sweden, and Montana who are studying decision-making under uncertainty in avalanche terrain. In one recent study, he found that slight changes in the framing of a question about safety altered backcountry skiers’ decisions about whether to ski down the slope. The participants viewed a photo with data about a snow slope’s angle, the prevailing regional avalanche problems, and the forecasted avalanche danger level. Some were asked “How safe is it?” on a scale of 1 to 7, and others were asked “How dangerous is it?” When the ski conditions were ambiguous, the participants were unsure whether it was dangerous, but they were confident it was not safe. When asked if it was safe, they made more conservative decisions about whether to ski down (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2021opens in new window).
Hetland and Andrea Mannberg, PhD, an economics professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, recently launched a 10-year longitudinal study of more than 3,000 backcountry skiers to analyze how participants make decisions in avalanche terrain. Thirty-six percent of the participants know someone who had been buried or injured in an avalanche in the past year, and 7% had been in an avalanche or triggered one themselves in the past year. The researchers are interviewing participants who have had a close call to determine if an accident changes their perceptions of risk.
The team has also explored how the desire to attain social status influences decisions on the slopes. In a study of more than 640 backcountry skiers, 33% felt that their satisfaction with a weekend of skiing would be affected by the level of difficulty in the terrain choices of other skiers. In other words, their satisfaction depended on how their slope accomplishments compared with others. These skiers who compared themselves with others were more likely to ski down a risky mountain than those who did not value their social positioning as highly (Leisure Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2021opens in new window).
“We also found that avalanche education did not change decisions among either novices or professionals who valued their social position,” said Mannberg, who is also a backcountry skier. She hopes her findings will lead to innovations in avalanche education, such as training about the interplay between personality types and decision-making. Mannberg, who broke both shins when she got caught in an avalanche in 2014, encourages skiers who know they value social positioning to consider strategies such as taking a break from Instagram before they ski. If skiers know they will post photos of a trip on social media, she encourages them to think about if they may be more tempted to take unwise risks to gain social status. She stopped posting photos of her trips, and she doesn’t “feel badly about choosing to ski less steep terrain.”
Avoiding mental shortcuts
Like Mannberg, clinical psychologist Sara Boilen, PsyD, believes that self-awareness is one of the keys to survival in adventure sports. Boilen, an experienced backcountry skier who owns Sweetgrass Psychological Services in Whitefish, Montana, provides avalanche training to skiers in Montana, Utah, and Washington that draws on her psychological expertise. She recently studied data from avalanche victims in the United States who died in the past 70 years. Since 1990, people ages 30 to 49 were the only age group with increasing numbers of fatalities—even though the total number of fatalities each year has remained relatively flat (Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, Vol. 29, 2020opens in new window). “Although the risk on each trip is relatively small, the number of exposures is much higher for people on the higher end of the age range because they have taken many more trips over time,” she said.
Even when the skiers she teaches learn about heuristic traps in avalanche country, such as that a mountain that is more familiar “feels” safer, Boilen has seen how awareness of these concepts does not necessarily protect people. “Being aware of heuristics does not make us better able to avoid them,” she said. “We still fall for it.”
To counteract that tendency, she teaches skiers strategies that force them to slow down mentally. During her training, participants engage in group exercises to learn their communication style, relationship with risk, and goal-setting approach. “If my ski partner knows that I have a hard time speaking up, she may ask more questions to draw me out before we make a decision,” Boilen said. She also teaches skiers to be mindful about how they phrase questions to a group and to be sure to avoid leading questions if possible. “Everybody feels good about this, right?” will elicit different responses from “How are people feeling?”
Assigning a devil’s advocate in the group is also wise because this person can battle confirmation bias—the tendency to look for information in our environment that confirms our beliefs or expectations—by asking questions about a situation that should be considered before deciding whether to take a route. Adventurers can also perform a sort of premortem analysis, said Boilen. Even though people often prefer to focus on the fun they are having, “Ask what the newspaper headline will be if there is a tragedy, such as ‘skiers die after venturing in unsafe terrain,’” she said. “These strategies disrupt the thinking-fast mechanism in our brains.”
Researchers are also finding evidence that gender may play a role in decision-making in adventure sports that involve vigorous exercise. In one study, participants rode an exercise bike at moderate intensity for 30 minutes and then completed a computerized risk-taking behavioral task. The investigators also tested the cortisol levels of the bikers, and the levels increased significantly after the exercise. The exercise increased the risk-taking for the males but not the females (Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Vol. 93, No. 2, 2022opens in new window). “This is consistent with other studies that have explored effects of acute stress on risk-taking,” said study author Cynthia Thomson, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada, who researches psychology and exercise physiology. Although the researchers did not study the reason for the difference, evolutionary roles may help explain the results, said Thomson. “Research has shown that men respond to cortisol spikes with a fight response such as risk-taking, while women respond more conservatively with a need to protect,” she said.
The perks of local adventures
Although interest in extreme sports is increasing, the pandemic allowed many people to discover the benefits of adventure in activities that did not require such high levels of training and discipline. Since March 2020, the number of new and returning outdoor participants has increased 26%—the highest growth ever recorded by the Outdoor Industry Association. The top four outdoor activities based on the number of participants were running, hiking, fishing, and biking.
“People came up with creative microadventures in their local communities,” said Houge Mackenzie. For example, ideas could include exploring a local area by moonlight, camping in the backyard, or planning a novel bike route and eating at local food providers along the way (Leisure Sciences, Vol. 43, No. 1–2, 2021opens in new window). “These local adventures can help us develop new skills, foster creativity, and change the way we connect with each other and the environment,” she said.
Although pursuing adventure may take time and effort, psychologists such as Brymer argue that these activities increase well-being (Annals of Leisure Research, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2021opens in new window). He remembers a research participant who was a medical doctor working several weeks consecutively without a break. To avoid working yet another weekend, the doctor accepted an invitation for an adventure trip that included caving. He was nervous because adventure sports seemed to involve unnecessary risks, but he felt invigorated and enjoyed the focused moments when time seemed to slow down. After the adventure, he started interacting with patients differently. He started seeing them as individuals with a history and family rather than rushing through the day to solve medical problems. The doctor continued adventuring throughout his medical career.
“These experiences tap into what the senses and body are capable of and can affect the way people see the world,” Brymer said. “They feel less constrained by an artificial environment, and they learn that fear is not a bad emotion but rather information that requires attention to reach their potential.”
