So what sets people like Mallory — we’ll call them “elite risk-takers” — apart from the rest of us? Men are over-represented in high-risk and adventure sports, and research consistently finds that men — especially young men — are more willing than women to take risks once they participate. The social rewards of riskAmelia Earhart is perhaps the best-known female elite risk-taker. The belief that their accomplishments have an impact beyond their own legacy could be what drives some elite risk-takers to keep pushing themselves. In the 19th century, failures were often satirized in cartoons, which may have motivated some elite risk-takers to push on with their attempts past the point of reason rather than face social ridicule.