Risks Seem Low While Climbing High: Shift in Risk Perception and Error Rates in the Course of Indoor Climbing Activities
Name
fpsyg-09-02383.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
399.68 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9b2d5519ceeca6b6c4b558a21e5e0c7a
Author(s)
Raue, Martina Julia
Kolodziej, Ronnie
Lermer, Eva
Streicher, Bernhard
Date Issued
December 17, 2018
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Citation
Haue, Martina, et al. "Risks Seem Low While Climbing High: Shift in Risk Perception and Error Rates in the Course of Indoor Climbing Activities." Frontiers in Psychology, 9 (December 2018). © 2018 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Little is known about people’s risk perception while participating in potentially harmful activities. In a field study conducted in a climbing gym, we investigated how the climbing activity influences climbers’ risk perception and error rates. Based on research on embodiment, we argue that the perception of risks may differ between being in an active state during climbing and being in an inactive state before or after climbing. In addition to subjective risk perception, error rates were observed as an objective measure of behavior that increase the risk for accidents. Experience was included as a potential moderator because indoor climbing is also accessible to inexperienced people. Drawing on the affect heuristic, we hypothesized that experienced climbers are guided by their intuitions, which makes them less susceptible for influences of their physical state when judging climbing risks. Less experienced climbers need to rely more on deliberative thinking and their judgments may be more distorted by the effects of being in an active state. Climbers were asked to judge climbing risks at five points in time (twice before, twice during and once after climbing in a gym). In addition, the amount and type of climbing errors was observed at two points in time during the activity. We recruited 57 participants (32% female) in a large climbing gym in Germany, who were between 18 and 57 years of age. Results show that participants’ perception of climbing risks generally decreased during the activity phase as opposed to the pre-activity phase, while error rates increased. Higher experience was associated with lower risk perception, but also more errors. Further, experience may weaken the influence of physical activity on risk perception. In higher risk sports people have to make important decisions while being active. Our results suggest that especially climbers need to be aware that being physically active can distort their risk perception. Keywords: risk perception; physical activity; climbing; mountaineering; embodiment; extreme sports
MIT Department
AgeLab (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02383
