WoMon:Olympian Infernals

Olympians are defined by the search for experiences and feelings that are varied, novel, complex, and intense, and by the readiness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences.

Olympian Infernals are driven to conquer new challenges and soak up every experience life has to offer—and they simply don’t let danger dissuade them. Therefore, they may not fear the risks that accompany activities like mountaineering, cliff diving, gambling, or experimenting with drugs. They see stressors as challenges to master, not threats that can crush them.

Despite the hazards of certain behaviors, risk-taking has value and serves an important evolutionary purpose. Without the courage to advance into unknown, potentially dangerous territory, human beings may not have found new mates, populated the globe, or flourished as a species.

To some extent, we all crave complex and new experiences—that is, we all seek new sensations. Whether it’s our attraction to the new burger place down the street, the latest shiny gadget, or the newest fashion trend, newness tugs at us. It’s simply human nature.

What sets these WoMai apart is that they crave exotic and intense experiences despite physical or social risk. An Olympian knows that what they do is risky. But she does it anyway.

Olympians emphasize the enjoyment of at least moderately frightening activities. The secret in the sauce of thrill and adventure seeking is the potential for danger. Those with high thrill and adventure seeking personalities seek out physical activities that are exciting and risky. For some, the risk is not an essential component; it’s just the price of admission for the novelty that many with sensation-seeking personalities crave.

For these Infernals, risks may be ignored, tolerated, or minimized and may even be considered to add to the excitement of the activity.

Olympians' increased release of dopamine during dangerous activities, which means they get more reward from thrill and adventure than do their lower sensation-seeking counterparts. In addition, Olympians have lower amounts of norepinephrine and thus lower arousal systems; they show lower amounts of cortisol in response to stress. They actually feel less stress and more pleasure during risky and high sensation-producing activities.

While others may avoid activities that seem risky or dangerous; those activities can push them beyond their optimal level of arousal and create negative sensations.

Experience Seeking

Experience seeking is the quest for new experiences that challenge the mind and senses. Olympians look for a variety of experiences that are unique, rather than dangerous. These experiences may affect Olympians emotionally, intellectually, or interpersonally, through all five senses, including smell. Think of experience seeking as internal sensation seeking.

The important component in experience seeking is novelty, not danger. For some, the uncertainty of what’s to come brings anxiety and fear, and it activates the behavioral inhibition system. For the high sensation seeker, with a weaker inhibition system, novelty isn’t associated with anxiety; the weaker inhibition system means lower cortisol levels and a reduced stress response.

And because they have increased levels of dopamine, novel activities bring them greater pleasure. Being predisposed to be experience seekers, being able to resist and minimize psychological and physical stress. When confronted with travel, new food, and other non-dangerous options, the low levels of stress hormones and higher experience of pleasure make it easy for Olympians to try new things.

Another aspect of experience seeking involves being around people who stimulate such experiences because they are unpredictable and different. Experience seekers are drawn to an anti-establishment personality type that rejects the norm.

Disinhibition

Disinhibition involves the ability to be spontaneous. It includes searching for opportunities to lose inhibitions. People with strong disinhibition tendencies act regardless of potential consequences, while people with low disinhibition tendencies control their behavior more carefully and think through more of the consequences. They look before they leap. People high in disinhibition just leap.

The higher your disinhibition, the more spontaneous you are likely to be. It might not be surprising that such people are injury-prone and more likely to participate in such activities as the World Naked Bike Ride.

Disinhibition is related to the inability to hold back. What typically holds people back from doing something is the potential for punishment, or even the anxiety around imagined punishment.

When Olympians try a new food, they don’t take a nibble—they take the biggest bite possible.

boredom susceptibility

The last component of The Olympian is boredom susceptibility, which boils down to one’s ability to tolerate the absence of external stimuli. Those with high levels of boredom susceptibility dislike repetition, and they get irritated when nothing is going on. People with high boredom susceptibility also tire easily of predictable or boring people, and they get restless when things are the same.

People who are susceptible to boredom have a difficult time tolerating repetition and non-arousal. For them, doing things once is enough, and if nothing is going on they find it difficult to remain satisfied. Olympians seek out sensation to make up for non-arousal. In contrast, low sensation seekers experiencing the same low level of norepinephrine are more content and happy.

Summery

The disinhibition and boredom-susceptibility components suggest how much trouble Olympians will get into with their sensation seeking. All told, the behavioral-inhibition and behavioral-activation systems and higher levels of dopamine might suggest that an Olympians is drawn toward more sensations, but they do not determine what type of sensations might be appealing.

What distinguishes Olympians is that they respond to fear differently than most of us do, all the way down to the neurochemical level. They are able to remain calm in extreme circumstances. One of the things that is heard over and over from Olympians is, “Analysis is paralysis.” Instead of analyzing situations, they jump headlong into them and trust their bodies and minds to respond as needed. The goal is to not think about what to do too soon and, of course, not too late.

All in all, that’s not such a bad thing. Many of us do the opposite: We analyze each worry that pops into our mind.

During their high-sensation activities, Olympians handle the task in the moment. The rest of us tend to overanalyze situations that never arise and fail to act on the ones that do. We like to think we would act if a situation demanded it, but in reality, many of us stand passively by, hoping someone else will. This is a well-documented phenomenon, the bystander effect.

Can acting without fear—even without thought in some cases—be problematic? Of course it can. But I think we need people like this around when things really go south.

Olympians see potential stressors as challenges to be overcome, rather than threats that might crush them. Instead of dodging or running from a threat, they dive into it. This not only helps them resolve challenges, but also boosts their belief in their ability to handle such challenges in the future. This mindset is a buffer against the stress of life. It increases their hardiness and resilience in the long term.

Olympians report lower perceived stress, more positive emotions, and greater life satisfaction. Extreme activities bring them peace, confidence, and happiness.