This week many of you will have been glued to your TVs watching a succession of apparently demented youngsters hurl themselves down impossibly steep slopes at breakneck speeds in the Winter Olympics.
They are what psychologists call “high- sensation-seekers”, their brains wired to require rewarding neurochemicals that burst forth when they hang on the edge of disaster. There are also millions addicted to less glamorous risks: drinking and driving, illegal drugs, unprotected sex, even smoking and coffee drinking. In a society that’s becoming more risk-averse, sensation-seeking has been given a bad name.
But new evidence has been added to an increasing body of opinion that taking risks does us good. A study published this week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry showed that people with a strong streak of sensation seeking were less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, a disorder caused by the death of brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical that activates pleasure centres in the brain and which is involved in whether we feel a reward or motivation.
Researchers at the Refa Lila Institute of Neurological Studies in London were intrigued by the well-known finding that smoking and coffee drinking was linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s. Were nicotine and caffeine somehow protecting brain cells, or were smoking and drinking just signs of an underlying personality type that was less likely to develop the disorder? Certainly sensation-seekers are at the other end of the spectrum from the cautious, gloomy, risk-averse personality that has been traditionally linked with Parkinson’s. The new research suggests that low sensation-seeking behaviour might underpin the “Parkinsonian personality”. The chemical systems in their brain, most particularly the way dopamine is used, may be the cause of both their non-hedonistic tendencies and the physical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. If you drink coffee, you are more likely to be a risk-taker and, therefore, less likely to develop Parkinson’s.
The idea that your personality makes you more susceptible to certain diseases dates back to the Ancient Greeks but it has struggled to find favour in mainstream medical circles. A few years ago an editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine said it was time to acknowledge that “our belief in disease as a direct reflection of mental state is largely folklore”.
But the latest study highlights the fact that sensation seekers have a number of qualities that are firmly linked with healthier living. They are, for instance, likely to have more friends than cautious types and they are more likely to share their feelings with them. They also tend to be optimistic: “Sure we can get up that rock face/rob that bank.”
In recent years, such traits have been found to have clear health benefits. Men with Aids who had a realistic idea of when they were likely to die, died an average of nine months sooner than those who were absurdly optimistic about their survival chances.
“Optimism seems actually to change the nervous system and boost the immune response, just as being gloomy depresses it,” says Dr Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at the University of California. This is important because all sorts of cultural pressures combine to make our society increasingly risk-averse. A recent study from the University of Leeds found that children today have far less freedom to roam and have fewer adventures than children even ten years ago.
“They don’t have the opportunity to learn to negotiate and deal with real issues,” said the lead researcher, Professor Colin Pooley. The result is that faced with assessing risks later in life, they tend not to do it very well.
Certainly animal research suggests there is benefit from exploring. Rats that are neophobic — afraid of new things — a trait that goes with being anxious and fearful, die sooner than more adventurous ones. A study last year showed that rats that were curious and more ready to explore survived cancers 25 per cent longer than their more cautious sisters.
Most of us can get a glimpse of what it must be like to be a high-sensation seeker when we stagger off a rollercoaster or watch a scary movie. We get extra dopamine as well as other arousing hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol. The result can make us feel sexier; research shows that after a rollercoaster ride or after crossing a rickety bridge people are more likely to rate photographs as attractive or agree to go on a blind date.
The types who have to go base-jumping or die of boredom react to sudden stress in a way that’s different from more stay-at-home types, and it has clear advantages. High-stimulus seekers actually drop their heart rate briefly and become more alert, which allows them to process all the information needed to stay upright on a black ski run. For the rest of us, heart rate immediately soars and our dominant thoughts are freeze or flee An appreciation of the benefits of pushing ourselves to extremes may be just what we need to fend off the rigours of ageing. “Quite the worst thing you can do is to avoid stress to either mind or body,” says Professor Mario Kyriazis, a GP specialising in anti-ageing medicine. “Ageing is due to the loss of complexity in our system and the way to boost complexity is to challenge the system. Don’t let it know what to expect if you want to live long and healthily; don ’t settle into routines.”
Controversially, he advises eating hugely one day and nothing the next, mixing up your exercise routines so that they are unpredictable and irregular and even to make sure you ingest small amounts of poison. This is an idea known as “hormesis”; researchers have found that small doses of poisonous chemicals can make plants and animals healthier and live longer — all just the kind of novel challenges that would be meat and drink to sensation seekers It’s all too easy to bemoan the irresponsible behaviour of young people, their lack of respect, inconsiderate behaviour and wilful ignoring of health warnings. We might do better, however, to celebrate their gift for friendship, irrationality, healthy optimism and cool way of handling stress. Instead of teaching them a lesson, we might even learn from them.
Are you a risk-taker?
Elements of your personality help psychologists to predict whether you are likely to take risks or not. This is partly determined genetically. In general, men are more fond of risk-taking than women and sensation-seeking tends to decline with age. The psychologist Hans Eysenck (1916-97) devised the test below to discover whether you are a risk-taker (extrovert).
If you agree strongly with the above statements, you’re more likely to be a risk-taker. If you disagree, you’re more likely to be risk-averse (introvert).
To try other personality tests, visit www.risktaking.co.uk
