USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

Sociological factors influencing high-risk physical activities.

SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Philip J. Trocchia

Karin Braunsberger

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

ISSN

1534-973X

Abstract

Although risk-taking has been investigated widely in psychology and marketing-oriented literature, the vast majority of those risks pertain to lifestyle choices, such as sexual promiscuity, smoking, and illicit drug use. Conversely, relatively little work has explored why adults engage in high-risk physical activities, such as mountaineering and skydiving. To help explain this phenomenon, we create a model based on the theory that the human body is hot-wired to thrive on certain types of stress not provided in modern society. That is, high-risk behaviors provide the stress (and accompanying stress release) that some individuals crave. We propose that, aside from innate personality characteristics, sociological factors influencing one's likelihood of engaging in high-risk activities include a sense of alienation at work, postponement of gratification, the feeling of work as an imposition, a perceived lack of control in one's life, and questioning the meaning of life. We believe that this paper helps explain risk-taking behaviors of a relatively large group of people in modern society, and can provide a springboard for further empirical research; managerial implications for marketers of high-risk activities are discussed.

Comments

Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Marketing Management Journal, 21 (1), 180-194. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.

Language

en_US

Publisher

Marketing Management Association

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS