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To Analyze Thrill, Define Extreme Sports
1International Chair in Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 9, 2018
Summary
Thrill, an emotion with unknown evolutionary benefits, can be studied using extreme sports. Extreme sports are defined as activities where survival depends on moment-to-moment skill, and errors are fatal, enabling new research into thrill.
Area of Science:
- Psychology and Evolutionary Biology
- Human Behavior and Emotion
Background:
- Emotions evolved as survival mechanisms, but the evolutionary advantage of thrill remains unclear.
- Existing definitions of extreme sports are subjective or discipline-specific.
- Understanding thrill requires a clear, objective definition of extreme sports.
Purpose of the Study:
- To objectively define extreme sports independent of participant psychology.
- To establish extreme sports as a viable tool for studying the emotion of thrill.
- To explore the neurophysiological and evolutionary basis of thrill.
Main Methods:
- Literature review encompassing academic and popular sources.
- Autoethnographic analysis of outdoor sports.
- Distinguishing between 'extreme' and 'adventurous' levels of outdoor activities.
Main Results:
- Proposed an objective definition for extreme outdoor adventure sports: activities where survival hinges on continuous skill, and any error leads to fatality.
- This definition allows for the examination of participant motivations, experiences, and transformations.
- Facilitates novel research into the emotional experience of thrill.
Conclusions:
- Extreme sports can be objectively defined, providing a framework for scientific inquiry.
- This definition enables the study of thrill from neurophysiological and evolutionary perspectives.
- Further research can now explore the adaptive functions of thrill and its role in human experience.
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