The prime purpose of this study was to find out whether the need for stimulation has a systematic influence on perceived risk. While driving on a motorway, 21 male sensation avoiders and 21 male sensation seekers 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 taken, namely the time-headway as a behavioural measure, verbal risk ratings as a cognitive measures and the heart rate variability as a physiological measure of mental effort. The results indicate that sensation avoiders preferred a longer following distance than sensation seekers, while no differences were observed with respect to the verbal risk ratings and heart rate variability. Prescribed the cognitive and physiological levels, these effects being largest for the sensation avoiders. Relating our results to the general concept of sensation seeking we conclude that differences in sensation seeking are primarily related to differences in overt behaviour. At the cognitive and physological level, sensation and physiological level of perceived risk, sensation seekers, as compared to sensation avoiders, take more risks at the behavioural level.
Abstract