Throwing yourself out of a perfectly safe plane, 2 miles up in the atmosphere.  Plummeting through the air at over 130 MPH.  Freefalling without a shred of safety other than an over-sized piece of cloth that violently ejects out of your backpack.  Gambling with your life at 14,000 feet.  This is not sanity…this is skydiving.

Skydiving is one of the rarities in life where people are more inclined to throw rational reasoning of safety behind and gravitate towards certain danger zones.

 In contrast, people usually try to side-step dangerous environments.  If there is a burning building, people try to escape.  If there is a shark in the water, people try to exit, and get back to the shore.  So what is it about skydiving that makes people voluntarily take a possible life-threatening risk?

According to Laurence Gonzales’ article, “Why We Crave Risk,” on the National Geographic’s Adventure Blog:

“We crave comfort and security.  We crave novelty and exploration too.  We crave calm and excitement, and we even crave fear…They are not contradictory. They are intricate, interdependent forces, working together to make what we call life.”

It’s a known fact that people love to take risks.  Whether it be along the lines of extreme sports such as someone jumping out of a plane while skydiving, or someone skating a 25 foot high half-pipe to perform the “ultimate stunt,” or more common behaviors such as carelessly speeding down the highway to get to work on time, the need for danger is always prevalent in one’s life.

There is a reason behind our need for danger.  People’s motivation to crave risk is not due to socialism or any type of conditioning, but instead a more basic and simple human desire:  The desire for adrenaline.

Experienced skydive instructor, Sebastien Lalaza, suggested that skydiving might be the ideal outlet for people to quench their thirst for adrenaline.

“[The reason] why people skydive is to get an adrenaline rush.  It’s an extreme sport.  Maybe people go because they have something to prove to themselves.  Above all things, skydiving is a thrill.”

The need for adrenaline is part of the basic human desire.  It is a simple part of the human brain function.  Our need for adrenaline stems from our cerebral cortex, located in the brain’s frontal lobe. 

The cerebral cortex is one of the various sections of the human brain.  Our brains are divided into different parts; each section with its own function and job to complete. 

Compare the brain to a car.  Like a brain, your car runs due to the combination of various unrelated parts all working together in unison.  The engine, transmission, brakes, and etc., are all symbiotic of each other, working together to get the final product to run smoothly.

The human cerebral cortex is responsible for a variety of various actions we take daily, including some of our more risky behaviors.   Some of the primary functions of the cerebral cortex include the ability for us to be aware of the actions that we take within our environment (better known as our consciousness), the ability to make decisions regarding the actions we take in response to our environment, as well as the ability to control our emotional response.

Queen’s University psychology professor Gerald J.S. Wilde in Ontario, Canada, presented a theory to account for why it is that people crave risk.  His theory titled risk homeostasis, explains that people subconsciously have a never-ending desire for risk. 

According to Hubpages.com:

“The theory of risk homeostasis states that an individual has an inbuilt target level of acceptable risk which does not change.  This level varies between individuals.  When the level of acceptable risk in one part of the individual’s life changes; there will be a corresponding rise/drop in acceptable risk elsewhere.”

The key phrase in that quote is “acceptable risk.”  People need acceptable risks in their lives.  Such as a skydiver  jumping out of a plane, or a thrill-seeker at a theme park riding a roller coaster, people want to take certain risks in their lives.  Without these adrenaline-inducing risks, life would become mundane and ordinary.  These risks are the spice of life.

A reason why such risks could be called “acceptable risks,” could be due to the fact that there is no present high level of danger.  Sure skydiving and roller coasters have the possibility of being dangerous, but in all reality, they are safe.  The factor that separates these relatively safe activities from more risky behaviors like running into a burning building, or swimming with sharks is the presence of a “safety net.”

With skydiving, you have a parachute, and if anything goes wrong, a reserve chute.  Roller coasters have routine maintenance checks and restraints to hold you in while you are on the ride. 

As Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, said in the 1999 film Fight Club, people need a blanket to feel safe and secure.  To paraphrase Tyler Durden, you need to let go of that blanket to feel free.  If you don’t then you will feel enclosed.  Caged in a world of boundaries.  It is for that reason why people choose to take the jump and go skydiving.

So we now know risk is ingrained in our human psyche.  Like anything else, love, happiness, sex, and fear, risk is an aspect of our lives that we are constantly trying to encompass in our lives through pushing ourselves, seeking our next adrenaline fix.  As it can be said, skydiving not be the most logical action for someone to perform, but it is without a doubt, a sure-fire way to quench your adrenaline needs.

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