What brands should know about the future adrenaline economy
Excitement is big business, from extreme sports to new technology. Kenneth Carter, Ph. D, explains the psychology behind uncertainty and its influence on the risk-adverse, thrill-seekers, and everyone in between.
It’s been said that fortune sides with those who dare, and people’s willingness to take risks plays a role in how we work, how we play and even how we manage our money. Yet the degree to which people embrace risk varies, says Kenneth Carter, professor of psychology at Emory University, and author of “Buzz: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils and Adrenaline Junkies.” Here’s how the adrenaline economy is evolving and what it will mean for brands and businesses.
Kate MacArthur: How does risk fit in our lives?
Kenneth Carter: Whenever we're trying to decide about something, the question that we're always asking is whether the potential bad things, those risks, are worth the rewards that we are out to get. Biologically we're designed to be able to do that relatively quickly.
MacArthur: What are the four categories of sensation-seekers that you outline in your book?
Carter: One is called thrill-in-adventure-seeking. This is what we think of as a typical thrill-seeker, people that love skydiving, race car driving, the physical sensations. Then there's experience-seeking — sensations of the mind and of the senses. People might be drawn to unusual foods or to unusual people, or even to cultural and travel differences. Those first two can tell me the kinds of experiences that people might want.
And the last two tell me how much trouble a person might get into with their sensation-seeking. One is called disinhibition. This is your inability to look before you leap, for example. And the last one is called boredom-susceptibility, which has to do with how easy it is for you to get bored and irritated when you get bored. When you look at all these four things together, it can help to predict the kinds of things that people might be drawn to and how much they're willing to risk to be able to have those experiences.
MacArthur: How have these classifications evolved?
Carter: It's shifted in some ways. Some early research saw that men were [more] represented in thrill- and adventure-seeking than women. But if you look at the same numbers now, they're fairly equal. And there are some cultural shifts that made that more possible.
MacArthur: Will that continue to change?
Carter: I think so. Technology changes too. Virtual reality also shows seekers a way to peek into that world as well. As people share these activities on social media, we can all see the different possibilities of things to do, and that world is expanding.
MacArthur: There are widely differing views about young people and risk today. Why is that?
Carter: What feels like a reward may be shifting for people and what feels risky for them may shift. I’m a Gen X-er. I grew up in social media with dial up and AOL. Now, as an adult, I’m very careful about what I say online because I’m nervous about what could happen if I say the wrong thing. And my students who are in Gen Z are even more aware of their social media presence in many ways. That’s a different kind of risk for them.
MacArthur: How might that dynamic shift as AI and disinformation affect our attention and decisions?
Carter: We are in a period where people question what they're experiencing, whether it's real. People now are getting in the habit of asking whether they should believe something. And it creates a barrier to the experience in many ways because you question before you can deeply engage in the experience.
MacArthur: Will virtual experiences truly provide a real-world experience for sensation-seekers?
Carter: What we've found is that there's nothing like being there, right? There's a difference between watching a beautiful movie about India, which can give you lots of experience of what it's like, lots of education, lots of detail. But when you're in India, there's a different experience. There's a space for both things.
“People now are getting in the habit of asking whether they should believe something. And it creates a barrier to the experience in many ways because you question before you can deeply engage in the experience.”
MacArthur: Where do you see virtual becoming a prominent option for people?
Carter: Part of where that's becoming important is in the same way where YouTube or online platforms are, which is curating an experience for those who can't be there. It's good for those who are in the middle of the sensation- seeking range or the low end to be able to peek in on those experiences. I don't know if people who are high sensation-seekers are going to find it authentic enough to take the place of the in-person experience for them.
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