NEED INTERVIEWEES! Study on the Psychology of Risk-Taking Behavior in Climbing and Mountaineering

Just finished my interview with Adrien. He asked insightful and oftentimes unexpected questions. The study appears to be a worthwhile acadmemic endeavor conducted by a conscientious, thoughtful surveyor.

Adrian Juncosa wrote: Just calling climbing risk-taking is quantifying: at 100 percent risky. Versus not risk-taking, 0 percent (not sure that ANY life activity is non-risk-taking but that's a different discussion). I don't categorize hardly any of the climbing that I personally do as risk-taking at all, and empirically over many many years and many thousands of feet of climbing, my assessment is absolutely accurate. Yet you automatically label ALL climbing as risk-taking. The only orthopedic injury I've ever incurred was on the job. So, objectively, for me climbing is not risk-taking, but working to earn income is risk-taking. That certainly doesn't seem fit in your framework. I get that you are saying this is subjective, but you have established at the very outset a highly weighted parameter. Not a good pathway to understanding, Grasshopper. How about just get 20 climbers and ask them what questions about climbing and climbers THEY think are interesting, rather than drowning the whole process in your own preconceptions before any of the subjects has said Word 1. And see if they mention risk-taking, or not. Since you are apparently going to include that term (though I would still strongly advise against it) in your write-up title, maybe ask about it, if at all, only as the very last question so as not to skew everything else that the interviewee says. I agree there is much of interest to find out about climbers' psychology, and that the first phase is completely subjective, but starting out with the premise that you  are studying the psychology of risk-taking (your words) and picking climbers as the data source is misleading or misguided or both. Try cave divers, mega-wave surfers, professional race drivers, opera singers, base jumpers, drug addicts. Those are some groups that are probably much more knowledgeable about risk-taking than climbers. Right, you probably didn't think singing is a risk-taking activity. Ask them though, you'll find out many of them feel more at risk when the curtain goes up than they would riding a bicycle on the autobahn at night. Whatever, remain open. I can assure you the "previous research" you cite has got some very basic things completely wrong with respect to many/most climbers.

You likely have far more climbing experience than me, but your understanding of risk and the components that comprise it seems incomplete. 

Likelihood of an incident should be treated separately from severity of the consequence. This is the way risk analysis is handled in the industrial sector, and it intuitively plays into peoples' risk thinking, although rarely with the same precision or rigor seen in the industrial sector.

Many climbers will tolerate low likelihoods of incidents with high consequences due to skill. We tend to protect against higher likelihoods of severe consequences. Google safety likelihood severity and load images to understand this better as I think it will provide important context.

Risk management over risk taking. Most of the time 

Adrien, sent you a PM. Would be happy to participate and also curious to see the results of the study when it comes out!

I also think it’s super fascinating (and maybe germane to Adrien’s study) that several people here are invested in making a distinction between managed risk and risk-taking. In my experience most people who take risks voluntarily manage them, to some degree or another. Climbers are definitely particularly invested in talking/thinking about it, though, which to me just speaks more to the fact that risk (and the positive feelings associated with managing it “well”) is an integral part of the activity for many.

Regardless of how the objective risk profile compares to other activities, I think many if not most of us experience some level of engagement with risk when we are climbing in shouldn’t-fall territory, deciding whether to stop to place another piece or keep climbing through, making a difficult clip, climbing in an area with high objective hazards, or any number or other common climbing situations. That these risks are managed IMO doesn’t take away from the fact that they are risks willingly taken in the first place.

Indeed, from the OP:

However, there is a scarcity of research on the benefits of extreme sports in the outdoors- activities in which individuals willingly put themselves into objectively dangerous and challenging situations, and then exercise as much skill and control as possible in order to keep safe and accomplish a specific goal.