A Harvard psychologist explains why wealthy travelers seek out high-risk trips, like exploring the Titanic shipwreck and going to space

• A submersible plunging the depths of the Atlantic went missing during a tour that costs $250,000.
• Exploring the Titanic wreckage site is one of a number of expensive experiences the wealthy take part in.

It cost passengers aboard the Titan submersible $250,000 each to secure a spot on the vessel's voyage to explore the wreckage site of the Titanic — a trip that has since gone awry, with the sub going missing less than two hours into its descent.

The expedition has shed light on the rise of high-risk travel among the wealthy, with several luxury travel agents telling The New York Times that a certain crop of seasoned travelers will "push the boundaries" in order "to chase thrills and claim bragging rights."

Aside from exploring oceanic depths, space travel — which has been estimated to be around 10,000-times more dangerous than commercial flying — and cruise expeditions to places like Antarctica are among the risky travel experiences en vogue with the wealthy.

For some wealthy individuals, risky explorations become a way of life: Victor Vescovo, who made millions in private equity, has visited the depths of all five oceans, diving 27,480 feet below the bottom of the Puerto Rico trench. And billionaire Hamish Harding, who is aboard the Titan, has also gone to space.

One reason they are willing to spend so much — Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic offers tickets to space for $450,000 — to be put in great danger is simply to break the mundane nature of their everyday lives, Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who specializes in social cognition and decision-making, told Insider via email.

"Many of us are sealed in unlived lives and are mindless much of the time," she said. "Doing something dangerous requires that we become mindful, and mindful engagement is literally and figuratively enlivening,"

"Sadly, many of these people don't know that it's easy to be mindful without risking their lives," she added.

Peter Anderson, the managing director for luxury travel agency Knightsbridge Circle, told the Times that a recent client wanted to visit South Sudan, which is one of the 19 countries that the US state department has deemed unsafe for travel. The planning process "involved consultations with security experts on how to best mitigate potential dangers," he said.

"They're so accustomed to what they consider to be typical vacations that they begin to seek out more unique experiences, many of which involve a degree of risk," Anderson told the Times.

Sometimes, it's for the sake of plain old curiosity.

"I guess what drives me is this inherent sense of intense curiosity that was cultivated in me when I was a child. I've always wanted to know more and to get to the other side of the hill to find out what lay beyond," Vescovo told Insider.

There's also the tendency for successful individuals to assume they will be successful in every field — even ones they have no experience in or that could lead to great danger, like the trip to the Titanic.

"They probably identify with people who have been successful and presume they too will be successful," Langer said. "It would be rare for someone to say, 'This really may kill be but what the hell.'"

A spokesperson for OceanGate, the company behind the Titan trip, told Insider that they were "unable to provide any additional information."