Inside the mind of thrill-seeking billionaires: The rich are turning to Titanic tours and space exploration because financial safety has made their lives ‘mundane’, says top psychologist
- People who are financially secure and well-off might seek risk in other places
- Psychologist Dr Scott Lyons said the high of thrill-seeking is like drug-taking
- READ MORE: The chilling health consequences of being trapped in a submarine
The Titanic submersible tragedy has shone a light on a growing trend among the world’s wealthiest people — extreme tourism.
When photos emerged of the claustrophobic interior of the 22ft submersible that has no chairs and Ziploc bags for toilets, the world was shocked to learn its five crew members paid $250,000 a head for a ticket.
But Dr Scott Lyons, a psychologist whose clients include some of the world’s wealthiest people, told DailyMail.com that new technologies have made it possible for rich people to chase increasingly dangerous thrills.
Jetting into space, exploring the depths of the ocean and skydiving from Mount Everest come with a hefty price tag that can only be afforded by the top earners.
Dr Lyons said the rich seek a ‘sense of aliveness,’ as there will be ‘safety in parts of their life like finances, so they might seek the thrill and the risk in other places.’
The uber-wealthy may also naturally be risk-takers, which may be partly why they rose to success in the first place.
According to Grand View Research, the global adventure tourism industry is predicted to expand from $322 billion in 2022 to more than $1 trillion in 2023 as more firms seek to expand their offerings to daredevil tourists.
OceanGate has provided tourists with the opportunity to explore the Titanic wreckage for several years
The 2019 crew of OceanGate’s Titan submersible. From left are Karl Stanley, Petros Mathioudakis, pilot Stockton Rush and Joel Perry
Dr Lyons said: ‘People will do more thrill-seeking if they’re susceptible to boredom. As you get more extravagant in life, things become less exciting. You’re looking for the novelties of life as things become so available to you.’
The adventures offer a ‘sense of aliveness,’ he said. ‘If there’s safety in some parts of their life like finances, where it doesn’t feel so risky, they might seek the thrill and the risk in other places.’
He added: ‘Sensation seeking also comes with people who desire pain relief or avoidance. And it gives us a sense of power in the moment.’
The crew of the missing Titan submersible includes British billionaire Hamish Harding, with a net worth of $1 billion, who made his fortune selling private jets and holds three Guinness world records for past extreme trips.
Also on board are British-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
The Dawood family are among the richest in Pakistan, but have strong links to the UK and Shahzada lives in a six-bedroom $4.2 (£3.3million) house in Surbiton, Surrey, with wife Christine, who works as a life coach, son Suleman and daughter Alina.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is also believed to be onboard, who has an estimated net worth of $12 million, as is French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet, worth $1.5 billion.
There is a potent physiological mechanism behind thrill-seeking, Dr Lyons explained.
‘It starts with a part of the brain called the amygdala, which assesses negative consequences, and essentially turns on a cascade of hormones, like dopamine, testosterone, norepinephrine, adrenaline and serotonin,’ he said.
‘There’s a whole cocktail of hormones that get released and offers pain relief or endorphins, avoidance, and, momentarily, this sense of power, raising us above that threshold of numbness or boredom.’
The feeling is similar to if someone were to go on a run for over three miles, Dr Lyons said. It is also comparable to drug taking.
Dr Lyons said: ‘People with high sensation-seeking tend to consistently pursue this fleeting moment or feeling that is like taking a drug; it gives us the same sort of positive feeling, except we’re creating that through circumstances as opposed to inhaling something or consuming something.’
He added: ‘Like any other drug, sensation-seeking creates a tolerance level in the brain. We need more to feel more. You might start off making a million dollars, but then you need two million, and then you take the one risk, and then you take more risks.
‘The crash after the high is pretty severe, and it always wears off. We will always reabsorb those hormones; we will always fade out of the thrill. That high only lasts really about 60 to 90 seconds.’
A skydiver takes in the mind-blowing view over Everest. Hurtling towards the Earth at astronomical speed, the thrill seekers are equipped with specialized military and parachute equipment, including an oxygen mask to keep them alive during the high-altitude adventure
British multi-millionaire Richard Branson points at other hot air balloons flying over the city of Marrakesh in January 18
The expedition to the Titanic wreckage that went missing on Sunday is one of the latest examples.
The Titan submersible is a 12ft submarine that carries five people to depths of 13,000ft.
The vessel has been described as ‘experimental’ but made its first successful dive to the Titanic as long ago as 2021.
It is usually frequented by scientists, archaeologists or marine biologists, but is open to tourists able and willing to pay the $250,000 fee.
‘Citizen explorers’ to have gone on the expedition include the director of the Hollywood blockbuster Titanic, James Cameron.
Clients are told that ‘if money isn’t an object and you don’t mind close quarters,’ they can join one of the trips.
Dr Lyons said: ‘We’re seeing really extreme things, like billionaires going out into space. It’s wild.’
He said: ‘Thrill-seeking is also known as sensation-seeking. We see it as looking for adventures, new experiences and ways to lose inhibition.
Billionaires may be more likely to engage in risky and pricey adventures due to the mundaneness of everyday life.
Extreme tourism often involves seeking out typically inaccessible parts of the world.
A journey to the South Pole can cost $100,000, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A three-way competition between billionaire entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson has spurred the development of a nascent astro-tourism industry.
The four astronauts on board Elon Musk’s SpaceX flight include Rayyanah Barnawi (left) and Ali al-Qarni (right) from Saudi Arabia along with US businessman John Shoffner (center left) and retired NASA commander Peggy Whitson (center right)
Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings said last week its first commercial spaceflight, called ‘Galactic 01’, would launch between June 27 and June 30.
The company has a reported backlog of 800 customers for the roughly 90-minute up-and-back flights, most of whom have paid between $250,000 and $400,000 for their tickets.
Since June 2021, when the first seat was sold for $28 million, Bezos’ space tourism venture Blue Origin has offered 10-minute flights to an altitude of about 350,000 feet (106 km), where passengers experience a few moments of weightlessness before returning to Earth.
A Japanese billionaire has already bought every seat on the maiden voyage of Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket, intended to spend three days circling the moon and come within 200 kilometers of the lunar surface.
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Initially scheduled for 2023, the flight has been delayed by failed tests of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, on Earth, rich tourists disinclined to make grueling treks through some of the planet’s toughest terrain can fly overhead or book private helicopters instead.
Before he set his sights on space, Branson was one of an elite group of extreme hot-air balloon travelers, becoming the first to traverse the Pacific Ocean in a balloon in 1991. Other wealthy individuals have set more distance, height, and duration records in the past few decades.
Heli-skiing services have launched in the snowy Himalayan mountains of Indian Kashmir, between India and Pakistan, during lulls in violence between Muslim separatists and the New Delhi government.
Mount Roraima, a mystic, flat-topped mountain on the Venezuela-Brazil border that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 ‘The Lost World’ novel and was once only accessible to the Pemon indigenous people, now attracts thousands of hikers each year — and a few visitors who arrive at the top via helicopter.
The element of exclusivity of such adventures adds to their desirability.
Dr Lyons said: ‘I have a lot of billionaire clients. It’s availability, but it’s also exclusivity. It makes you feel important, and it makes you feel special, especially if there’s low self-esteem involved, which there absolutely can be. Money doesn’t necessarily give you esteem.
‘This sense of importance and specialness that arises from doing something… going down into the submarine that costs $250,000, or hiking Kilimanjaro, versus going on a roller coaster, is quite different. There’s an exclusivity which gives you that extra pump.’
There is an aspect of competitiveness, too.
‘As you earn more, you start hanging around people who have more, so it’s a constant comparative experience and challenging. In those circles, as you climb up, there’s this sense of needing more,’ Dr Lyons said.
‘Let’s not forget; there is a high earners club, and they’re friends. There’s social pressure of doing things like this.’
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