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There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the human race has been overdoing it and taking risks for a while. For example, evidence of drinking alcohol has been found across the world dating back 10,000 years. There are even references in Greek texts to nomadic warriors enjoying "weed saunas"!

2. Risk-taking feels good

Risk-taking increases our body’s production of dopamine, the neurotransmitter and hormone that allows us to feel pleasure.

3. Risks are attractive

Doing something we know that might cause harm is often (but not exclusively) done for an audience, and it can actually be attractive to others. It’s a way of showing to the world – with potential mates and rivals at the top of the list – that your genes are so indestructible you can afford to take risks. This phenomenon is called "costly signalling", and it has a key role to play in sexual selection and how we relate to others.

The link between teenage years and risk-taking is forged from a melting pot of factors.

If we didn鈥檛 take risks, we wouldn鈥檛 advance our own goals or those of society at large.

First off, dopamine activity in the brain is at its peak during adolescence. Meanwhile, echoing the idea that bravado loves company, scans have shown that the areas of the brain linked by dopamine are especially active in adolescents when they are in the presence of their peers.

There is another key factor at work too – independence. Leaving the nest and going into the wild is a risky thing for any young mammal to do. Being prepared to take that risk is important for survival. “We think that if we weren’t programmed to be more risk tolerant when we are adolescents, the species wouldn’t have survived,” says Dr Laurence Steinberg.

5. There’s such a thing as positive risk

So, taking risks is not inherently bad. If we didn’t take risks, we wouldn’t advance our own goals or those of society at large.

This is particularly true for adolescents, with all that dopamine whizzing around their brain and their cerebral cortex in flux. “You want your teenager to try out to audition for a part in the school play,” says Dr Steinberg, “even though it's a risky thing to do, or to act on a crush that he or she has on someone else, even though they might be rejected. There's such a thing as positive risk taking.”

6. Risks are necessary for survival

Despite the trepidation there is around risk-taking, if we didn’t take some risks we literally would not survive. We would become, says Ella, a species of people who “are too scared to leave the house, too scared to fall in love, too scared to have a child” and a species that “would become extinct”.