Sensation seeking
The craving for novel, intense, and risky experiences.
What it means
Sensation seeking is a trait defined by the pursuit of varied, novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks to obtain them. It comprises facets such as thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility. The trait peaks in adolescence and early adulthood and declines with age, and is biologically linked to reward-system reactivity and dopaminergic functioning. High sensation seekers are over-represented in extreme sports, novelty-driven careers, and risky health behaviors, but also in exploration and innovation. It matters because it helps explain individual differences in risk-taking that pure rational-choice models cannot, and because it interacts with impulsivity to predict harmful outcomes.
Examples
A high sensation seeker books a skydiving trip and changes jobs for the adrenaline; a low scorer prefers a predictable, calm weekend.
One investor watches a volatile position hourly for the swing of it; another buys an index fund and deliberately never looks. Same money, very different appetite for arousal.
A high sensation seeker picks the horror film and the ghost-pepper wings, then suggests a night drive. What he is avoiding is not danger but boredom.
First described in Marvin Zuckerman (1971; 1979).