DIFFERENCES IN RISK EXPERIENCE BETWEEN SENSATION AVOIDERS AND SENSATION SEEKERS

The prime purpose of our study was to find out whether the need for st imulation has a systematic influence on perceived risk. While driving on a motorway, 21 male sensation avoiders and 21 male sensation seeker s had to follow another car, once at a free following distance chosen by the subject himself and once at a prescribed following distance of 15 m. While following the other car, three measures of target risk wer e taken, namely the time-headway as a behavioural measure, verbal risk ratings as a cognitive measures and the heart rate variability as a p hysiological measure of mental effort. The results indicate that sensa tion avoiders preferred a longer following distance than sensation see kers, while no differences were observed with respect to the verbal ri sk ratings and heart rate variability. Prescribed following resulted i n a shorter time-headway which was reflected in an increase in experie nced risk at both the cognitive and physiological levels, these effect s being largest for the sensation avoiders. Relating our results to th e general concept of sensation seeking we conclude that differences in sensation seeking are primarily related to differences in overt behav iour. At the cognitive and physiological level, sensation seekers and sensation avoiders are comparable to each other. In order to achieve t heir preferred cognitive and physiological level of perceived risk, se nsation seekers, as compared to sensation avoiders, take more risks at the behavioural level.