The phenomenon of high places: what is it and why do we feel it?

This phenomenon occurs when, being in high places, we feel that we could jump.

Has anyone ever had the idea of jumping while on the roof of a tall building or walking on a bridge?

At first glance, this idea may seem like that of a suicide, but the truth is that there are many people who, when they are in a high place, cannot help thinking about jumping, although, fortunately, they do not do it.

According to a 2012 study, this type of thinking has a name: it is the high places phenomenon.. Let's take a closer look at what it's all about.

What is the phenomenon of high places?

In 2012, Jennifer Hames and her colleagues wondered about a strange sensation. Many people, when they were near a cliff or a high place, they were overcome by a strange sensation, which could be interpreted as the fear of wanting to jump. It was as if their brain was sending them signals that, even though it was dangerous, there was a desire to want to try what it would feel like to fall into the void.

The group wondered what this might mean, whether it was something that might be synonymous with psychopathology or whether it occurred in normal people, without any problems or suicidal tendencies. They also wanted to see if it was common, or if it only occurred in a few specific cases. In their 2012 paper "An urge to jump affirms the urge to live", Hames and colleagues called this phenomenon the "High Places Phenomenon".

The research

Hames had the idea to investigate this strange sensation when she was still a graduate student at Florida State University. While in the lab, talking to his classmates, the subject came up as to whether any of them had ever felt the fear of wanting to jump in front of trains, crash their cars into oncoming traffic or jump off tall buildings, even without wanting to commit suicide.

The curious thing is that these types of sensations had appeared in the minds of the researchers themselves on more than one occasion, which aroused their interest as to whether they occurred in the general population.

Doing a bibliographic search, they saw that one in seven people had thoughts of this kind, but the one that most caught their attention was precisely the one related to heights. How was it possible that, being in high places, we get the feeling of wanting to jump? What is evolutionary about this? Do we have a problem?

To address these questions, Hames and colleagues conducted research by taking a sample of 431 college students and asking them if they had ever felt this sensation. In this sample, about 50% reported having felt, on some occasion, a strange urge to jump off a bridge or jump off a cliff. A remarkable fact about the sample is that it was made up of people who were not suicidal, which may conflict with the fact that they reported feeling this strange urge to jump off a bridge or jump off a cliff.

Their research led them to a conclusion that, at first glance, seems counterintuitive: the brains of the participants, when they found themselves in risky situations, as in this case at heights, raised the question of whether they wanted to jump, the participants' brains, when they found themselves in risky situations, such as heights, questioned whether they wanted to jump in order to keep them safe.. What happened was that, objectively, it gave them the feeling that they really wanted to jump.

According to the group, this feeling of wanting to jump is not really a desire, nor an urge to want to die. It is a safety signal, a warning that, despite the height, you are safe, as long as you stay behind the fence of the bridge or do not open the tenth-floor window. It's our brain's way of telling us that we're in a safe place, that there's nothing to worry about, but we tend to misinterpret this signal, thinking that we react that way because we really want to jump.

The group saw that the anxiety variable influenced how likely a person was to have had these kinds of thoughts. The higher the anxiety, the more likely people were to experience the high place phenomenon..

Despite the explanations of Hames' group, other psychologists believe there may be more causes behind this phenomenon. For example, there are those who believe that it could be a way that the body has to keep us awake, to prevent us from freezing in the face of a threat or risk, as in this case would be the heights.

The phenomenon in culture

Whatever the interpretations, the fact is that the phenomenon must have already been known in popular culture, although in a less defined form and without a proper scientific approach. Based on the idea that every feeling and relevant psychological aspect will end up being expressed, in one way or another, in human language, we can see that the phenomenon of high places had already been expressed.

An example of this can be found in French. There is the expression "l'appel du vide", which means "the call of emptiness."a somewhat poetic way of saying that we people have a strange feeling of being called to launch ourselves from the highest height and hope not to hit the ground. Another example is a famous Italian song, "Mi fido di Te" by Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini, it says "La vertigine non é paura di cadere, ma voglia di volare", translated means "vertigo is not the fear of falling, but the desire to fly".

Depathologization of the phenomenon

The research by Hames and colleagues is important, especially considering that many people who have experienced this phenomenon often believe that they are starting to go crazy. Others often think that, if they really think they want to jump, they are suicidal. This type of collateral thoughts to the phenomenon are the ones that can lead to a real psychopathological picture, in the most serious cases.

According to the group, the phenomenon of high places is similar to intrusive thoughts, although they are not the same.. Intrusive thoughts are ideas that suddenly appear in the mind of those who suffer from them, preventing them from performing their daily tasks. They are usually symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and are therefore linked to the experience of traumatic situations.

The difference between the phenomenon of high places and intrusive thoughts is that the latter appear just like that, suddenly and without warning, while the phenomenon of high places occurs when one is in a high place, such as a building, a cliff or a bridge.

With this in mind, it is important to highlight Hames' research for having managed to give a scientific and depathologizing explanation to the phenomenon. Those who are on the side of a bridge, a cliff or on a tall building and feel that strange sensation of wanting to jump, really don't want to do it.. It's their brain informing them that, where they are, they are safe, that they don't have to worry, as long as they don't go over the safe line. It's a normal thought, appearing in, apparently, half the population. There is nothing to worry about.

Bibliographical references:

• Hames, J. L., Ribeiro, J. D., Smith, A. R., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2012). An urge to jump affirms the urge to live: An empirical examination of the high place phenomenon. Journal of Affective Disorders, 136, 1114-1120.