UKH

Hey there!

My name’s Hannah and I’m a fourth year student at the University of Glasgow, studying Psychology/Philosophy. I’m currently working on a proposal for my Psychology dissertation and intend to focus my study upon measuring the empathy of people who participate in high-risk mountaineering/alpinism in comparison with those who partake in low-risk sports. I should clarify that by “high-risk” I’m referring to high-altitude mountains with an increased risk of altitude-sickness, avalanche, exposure, crevasses, etc. or mountains which are notably difficult to climb and require more technical skill.

My main barrier so far has been finding mountaineering participants to take part in what will likely be a short online interview or questionnaire once my proposal has been accepted by my supervisor. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction regarding finding participants, or know someone yourself who would fit the criteria. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,
Hannah Kirkpatrick

If high-risk is associated with incompetence then I'm in.

Fair point: correlation between inability to recognise competence or lack thereof in oneself and lack of empathy.  

To the OP - your subjects can be found leaving Cairngorm car park any day after the decent conditions have ended.

The latter might be very much harder yet very much safer than the former (e.g. A4 nailing, vis a vis snow plodding but with constant avalanche risk). Is it methodologically sound to bundle them together? 

Mick 

Worth getting in touch with the alpine club I'd have thought. Also try various Chamonix Facebook groups. Plenty of high risk activities going on over there.

All a bit in the past for me I'm afraid. 

That’s a good point! I may have to alter my criteria slightly! 

Hi Hannah

1.  Welcome

2.  If you search the forums you will find a) how people have approached getting survey participants previously for similar work (and what's been well received and what criticised) and b) a study on empathy as it relates to "danger sports" people from about a year ago.  Get in touch with the author.

3.  If you're related to Andy, he's not normal and should be excluded from the sample

It may help to clarify the criteria and set some thresholds or expectations for each. 

I've done plenty of "high-risk" (i.e. stupid) activities in and outside mountaineering, but reading the above I feel like maybe I'm not the kind of high altitude technical wizard you're looking to include in your study. I'm more of a low-to-medium altitude bumbly. Happy to connect and share experiences and let you be the judge. 

PS - Moacs is right, Andy is not normal and should be excluded from any and all studies. 

I’m having some trouble finding the study you’ve mentioned - would you be able to link me to it?