What is it that draws some people to drive at high speeds or take up racing? Perhaps some people have genes that help them to tolerate the higher levels of stress, risk and anxiety associated with extreme speed.

In the 1960s researchers began to suspect that people volunteering for unusual or risky experiments might share a similar set of personality characteristics. They seemed to crave new and exciting experiences despite any potential dangers involved. The “sensation seeking” personality trait, as it has become known, may help us to understand why some people seem to become virtually obsessed with speed. Speeding whilst driving probably represents the most common form of sensation seeking in young men, despite the thousands of fatalities that occur on the roads each year.

Professional racing drivers also tend to be higher in sensation seeking, as do other high risk sports participants such as mountaineers and skydivers. Sensation seeking is on average higher in males, and declines with age in adults. High sensation seeking has been linked to unusually low levels of monoamine oxidase that may dampen the effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Dopamine is sometimes referred to as a “pleasure chemical” and high sensation seekers may need intense experiences in order to trigger the release of dopamine and experience pleasure. Both genetics and the environment influence levels of sensation seeking.