Risk and Immortality

Sticker Nation by Srini Kumar

Risk taking is a giddy tension between being vulnerable and scared, but at the same time, feeling superhuman. Mind and body are perfectly unified, at the top of their game, as the awareness of danger sends senses into overdrive. Stepping off a precipice, in the blink of an eye, the world accelerates wildly, yet you see more, pupils dilated, reaching deep into the shadows and sensing all harm. You feel more, terrified and sick and elated. Blood pounds into muscles primed for fight or flight. You're full of piss and vinegar, angry and bold, elated and terrified and terrifying and beautiful.

Risky behaviour is associated with a sense of power and immortality. Those who feel they're immortal are more likely to engage in risky activities, and, those who participate are more likely to feel unbreakable as a result of overcoming fate.

I feel it's important to understand risk better - the attraction of it and the danger of it - in order to get people to take more calculated risks. I've worked on advertising campaigns for road safety and considered strategies for the safer use of alcohol. Risk, perceived immortality and perceived lack of consequences are central to these issues.

The 'immortals' in our society are largely teens, who, much to the chagrin of their elders, live as if no harm could come to them. One of the problems in convincing teens otherwise is that, in a sense, they're right. Those on the brink of adolescence have the strongest claim to immortality. As Bryan Appleyard points out in How to Live Forever or Die Trying, 11-year-olds are the people least likely to die because they have survived the perils of childhood illnesses and are not yet subject to the debilities of age.

They are like medical immortals, defined as those who can't be killed by disease or age. Based on death rates for 11-year-olds, gerontologist Steven Austad calculated the life expectancy of a medical immortal to be 1200 years!

So, it turns out that young people do have some justification for feeling indestructible. Unfortunately, bolstered by confidence, they take poorly calculated risks and subject themselves to the one thing that can kill a medical immortal: a fatal accident.