Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping

by Robert M. Sapolsky

What makes for the benign sort of environment in which uncertainty is pleasurable, rather than stressful? One key element is how long the experience goes on. Pleasurable lack of control is all about transience—it’s not for nothing that roller-coaster rides are three minutes rather than three weeks long. Another thing that biases toward uncertainty being pleasurable is if it comes bound within a larger package of control and predictability. No matter how real and viscerally gripping the scary movie may be, you still know that Anthony Perkins is stalking Janet Leigh, not you. No matter how wild and scary and unpredictable and exhilarating the bungee jumping is, it’s still in the context of having assured yourself that these folks have a license from the Bungee Jumping Safety Police. This is the essence of play. You surrender some degree of control—think of how a dog initiates play with another dog by crouching down, making himself smaller, more vulnerable and less in control. But it has to be within a larger context of safety. You don’t roll over and expose your throat in play to someone you haven’t sniffed over carefully.