Snowmobile Psychology

This winter, there are 1.4 million snowmobiles abroad in the land, and the number is growing fast. Nature lovers, insisting that the little vehicles cause damage to the environment and shatter the tranquillity of wilderness regions, have begun pressing for anti-snowmobile legislation. But prospects for effective regulation are poor; the likelihood of an outright ban is nil. Now, however, a study by a Michigan State University professor suggests a more subtle way to deal with the proliferation of the abominable snowmobile (as its foes call it). If it is made thoroughly safe to operate, devotees will get bored and look for something more exciting.

Social Science Professor David Klein has not actually made that proposal, but in a recent issue of the Journal of Safety Research, he makes a sweeping generalization about snowmobile enthusiasts: they court danger to achieve satisfactions that their dull jobs cannot provide. The problem, Klein theorizes, stems from the discrepancy between cultural values and reality. The derring-do that had survival value in frontier days is still extolled in the U.S.; yet it is obsolete. In an industrialized nation where most jobs are routine, a man cannot win status through on-the-job valor. To compensate, he surrounds himself with power tools, outboard motors, high-performance cars, snowmobiles and the like. These give him, at play, "the feelings of control, power, masculinity and risk no longer available at work."

So great is the need to live dangerously, Klein believes, that most efforts to promote safety are doomed to failure: "Americans do not want as safe an environment as could be achieved. If an individual seeks risks, incorporation of safeguards into a recreational device is likely to send him in search of a less safe device."

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