Six-time IndyCar champion New Zealand driver Scott Dixon has a personality trait that allows him to stay calm amid the chaos of motor racing, a US clinical psychologist says.
Scott Dixon with the Astor Cup in St Petersburg, Florida on 26 October, 2020. Photo: Photosport / 2020 Michael L. Levitt
Dixon is among the greatest drivers in IndyCar history, having racked up more than 50 career race wins and snared six series titles.
Dixon will start on pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - known as the Brickyard - on Monday morning New Zealand time, when he contests the Indy 500.
Somewhat surprisingly, Dixon has only won the biggest race on the calendar once, back in 2008.
Scott Dixon does the traditional kissing of the bricks after winning the 92nd running of the Indy 500 in 2008. Photo: Photosport
A professor of psychology at Oxford College in Atlanta, Dr Ken Carter, sat down with Dixon as part of an NBC TV series Mind of a Motorhead.
He identified Dixon's personality traits which he says translate into success in a sport where danger is ever-present.
While there are several qualities integral to Dixon's success, Dr Carter has focused on what he calls sensation seeking - an ability to remain calm in the midst of chaotic experiences.
"Driving a race car is a really chaotic thing, and the kind of personality he has allows him to be able to slow down and do all those careful things without getting too overwhelmed.
"The people that have high sensation seeking personalities - their brains don't sense the danger in the same kind of way and they don't excrete the same kind of chemical messengers that respond to danger.
"One of them is called cortisol - it allows us to speed up and to get really nervous and anxious and feel danger. People with his personality trait don't create as much of that cortisol."
Photo: © 2020 Phillip Abbott
Instead they create more of a neural transmitter called dopamine which results in pleasurable feelings.
"So for him these stressful events don't feel so stressful - they feel kind of fun."
Dixon responds to fear in other aspects of his life in a different way to most other people.
Dr Carter and Dixon discussed the latter's enjoyment of bungy jumping with the driver saying he could sense the tension in the rope.
"So he can focus on those fine details in his environment like a lot of high sensation seekers can do.
"Average and low sensation seekers like me - we get overwhelmed in that chaos so everything just seems like a buzz to us," Dr Carter said.
"So for him these stressful events don't feel so stressful - they feel kind of fun" US psychologist Professor Ken Carter
Activities like bungy jumping and motor racing fall into a category of thrill and adventure seeking which Dixon scores highly in.
There is another category of experience seeking which is sensations of the minds and senses which includes trying different foods and travelling.
"He said he'll try anything once and he encourages his kids to do the same things as well."
Dixon's high sensation seeking trait is typical of many sportspeople participating in dangerous sports but importantly, he doesn't score highly in a trait called disinhibition - people "who don't look before they leap".
"He scored average in that personality trait which is probably really important in terms of all the planning he needs to do in order to be successful."