What Makes People Take Risks?
What Makes People Take Risks?
Have you ever felt you are on risk before? If yes, how do you feel at that moment? And would you like to do it again? The answers can be very different for each person. In order to know what the differences are we should know what risk is. Risk is some kind of possibility of suffering harm or loss or a situation involving uncertain danger. From the meaning of risk, people can look at risk in different point of view. Some people don't want to take or to deal with risk at all but some people want to take risks because of many reason; biological factors, getting self-confidence, and getting away from boring life.
First of all, people have risk taking instinct, which causes them to deal with any dangerous situation eagerly. This might be due to a dangerous, difficult, and uncertain past that ancestors passed on that made them strong and well trained for taking risks. In the article "Taking the Bungee Plunge", Bensimhon (cited in Men’s Health, 1992) mentions the same thing that human being are intrinsic risk takers who survive and who thrive on risks. By this reason, it is obvious that some people want to take risk because they have risk taking instinct. In addition, Israeli scientists have found one kind of gene know as D4DR that influences people’s characteristics. The scientists believe that people who have the gene tend to look for thrills. This kind of gene, D4DR, is also called thrill-seeking gene. (“For Our Ancestors, Taking Risks Was a Good Bet”, 1999) In other words, the thrill-seeking gene in human is another reason that influenced people to take risk.
Secondly, it’s mentioned in the Bensimhon’s article also about how people get confidence after thriving risks. In this case, people have the best moments when their body or mind is stretched to its limits while they are taking risks and after accomplishing it, they feel very confident. In addition, in the article “Risking Nature”, the author also mentions the same idea that people seek out nature even though it’s dangerous because of a desire for self-reliance. (“Risking Nature”, 1999) Naturally, people like to have freedom or to be self-reliance, so when they take risks, it’s like they can control their destiny by themselves. For example, when students have a chance to...