A different kind of decision
Most difficult situations on trail develop slowly. A plan drifts from the conditions it was built for, and by the time the risk is obvious, the options have already narrowed. That pattern has been the focus of this series so far.
But not every risky moment on trail develops that way.
Sometimes the risk isn’t a consequence of drift. It’s the decision itself, made deliberately, before a single step is taken.
The photo that was always the point
Standing past a safety barrier for a better angle. Walking out onto an exposed ledge for the shot. These aren’t decisions that emerge from fatigue or narrowing options late in the day. They’re often made early, sometimes before the hike has even started, when someone has already pictured the photo they want and the route is chosen to get it.
A 2025 study of 509 Australians, from researchers at UNSW and Griffith University, looked directly at this pattern. They found that how dangerous people believed the behaviour to be did not significantly predict whether they had taken a risky photo. What predicted it was whether people expected their audience to approve, and whether they had already formed the intention to do it. Perceived social approval was the strongest factor in the study, and it moved closely with intention. Risk perception, on its own, explained almost nothing.
Why this sits outside the usual pattern
The rest of this series has looked at how judgement erodes under pressure: fatigue narrowing attention, time pressure compressing decisions, small deviations accumulating until the original plan no longer matches the conditions on the ground. In that pattern, the person rarely set out to take the risk. The risk arrived gradually, often without being clearly recognised at the time.
This is different. The danger may be understood. It simply isn’t the only thing influencing the decision. This isn’t necessarily judgement that has degraded over hours on trail. It is judgement being directed towards a different reward. The person is still making a decision. But safety is competing against recognition, identity, belonging and the anticipated reaction to the image.
The reward system is doing the work
This is the part that matters for anyone trying to reduce this kind of incident. If the driver were poor risk perception, the fix would be more warning signs and better safety messaging. But the study suggests risk information alone may be insufficient when social reward is exerting a stronger influence. That reframes the problem. The trade is being influenced by an audience that is nowhere near the ledge and will bear none of the consequences. The audience rewards the image. It does not share the exposure.
Too often, the hike that gets the engagement is the one where someone stood too close to the edge. The hike where someone turned back because conditions weren’t right is rarely seen at all.
What competence should look like
Restraint is difficult to make visible online. The photograph shows where someone stood, but not the edge they chose to stay back from, the route they declined, or the moment they decided conditions were no longer right.
We need to stop rewarding content that presents unnecessary risk as achievement.
That does not mean making outdoor experience timid or stripping it of challenge. It means recognising that sound judgement, restraint and turning back are also evidence of competence. Until that begins to change, more warnings alone are unlikely to reach the real source of the decision.
Some risky decisions on trail aren’t the product of drift or judgement gradually breaking down. They are made deliberately because the expected social reward feels more immediate than the known danger. Reducing these incidents requires more than repeating the hazard. It means changing what the outdoor community chooses to admire.
This essay is part of the Human Factors in Hiking series, exploring behaviour, awareness and decision-making on the trail. Explore the series →
Reference: Cornell, S., Piatkowski, T., Brander, R. W., & Peden, A. E. (2025). The Influence of Social Media on Outdoor Risk-Taking Behaviours: Understanding the Role of Social Norms, Intentions, and Perceptions Among Australians. Health Promotion Journal of Australia. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.70133
