Corruption Tolerance Scale Test

Understand your comfort with everyday corruption in 3 minutes. 12 items pinpoint context-based risk areas and help measure culture gaps or campaign impact.

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Questions: 123 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

17,621 view

1,751 completion

1,390 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

3/5

Survival Bribe (Everyday) (SB)

Measures how willing a person is to tolerate giving a bribe in everyday situations when it feels necessary to protect vital interests.

Low tolerance

Moderate tolerance

High tolerance

1 – 1.3: Low tolerance | 1.4 – 2.7: Moderate tolerance | 2.8 – 5: High tolerance

A score of 3 indicates high tolerance for survival bribes in everyday life, suggesting greater acceptance of paying to resolve essential issues under pressure.

example score

3/5

Convenience Bribery (Everyday) (CB)

Measures willingness to offer small bribes in everyday life to increase personal convenience (e.g., faster service or easier household problem-solving).

Low tolerance

Moderate tolerance

High tolerance

1 – 1.4: Low tolerance | 1.5 – 2.8: Moderate tolerance | 2.9 – 5: High tolerance

A score of 3 indicates a higher tendency to view comfort-driven everyday bribes as acceptable in some situations.

example score

4/5

Survival Bribery (Business) (SB)

Measures how acceptable a person finds giving a bribe in business when it is perceived as necessary to protect the business or vital interests under pressure.

Low tolerance

Moderate tolerance

High tolerance

1 – 1.3: Low tolerance | 1.4 – 2.7: Moderate tolerance | 2.8 – 5: High tolerance

A score of 4 indicates high tolerance for survival-related bribery in business contexts, suggesting a stronger acceptance of paying under pressure to safeguard operations or interests.

example score

3/5

Convenience Bribe (Business) (CB)

Measures willingness to proactively offer a bribe to speed up or ease business-related services for personal advantage.

Low tolerance

Moderate tolerance

High tolerance

1 – 1.1: Low tolerance | 1.2 – 2.5: Moderate tolerance | 2.6 – 5: High tolerance

A score of 3 falls in the High tolerance range, suggesting a relatively strong readiness to use comfort-driven bribery in business situations to improve outcomes.

example score

3/5

Corruption Tolerance (CT)

This scale measures how willing a person is to accept or tolerate everyday corrupt practices.

Low tolerance

Moderate tolerance

High tolerance

1 – 2.6: Low tolerance | 2.7 – 4: Moderate tolerance | 4.1 – 5: High tolerance

A score of 3 indicates a moderate level of tolerance to corruption, suggesting situational acceptance rather than consistent rejection or endorsement.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Civics-minded citizens

41%OF USERS

People curious about their own moral boundaries and how they would react to everyday “small corruption” in real-life situations.

HR and compliance teams

34%OF USERS

Workplace decision-makers who want a quick read on how staff view bribes and favors in business and daily-life contexts.

Researchers and students

25%OF USERS

Social science learners and academics looking for a short, practical measure to use in surveys or evaluate anti-corruption efforts.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Survival Bribe (Everyday) (SB()

Average

2.6

Normal range

1.9 — 3.2

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

The Comfort Bribe (Everyday Life) (TCB(L)

Average

2.4

Normal range

1.8 — 3.1

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Survival Bribe (Business) (SB()

Average

2.6

Normal range

1.9 — 3.4

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Comfort Bribe (Business) (CB()

Average

3.5

Normal range

2.9 — 4.1

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Tolerance to Corruption (TtC)

Average

2.6

Normal range

2 — 3.2

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

Please rate the following situations by selecting the response that best reflects your opinion. Do not spend too much time thinking about each item, as there are no right or wrong answers.

- Completely wrong
- Mostly wrong
- Mostly right
- Completely right
- Absolutely incorrect
- Rather incorrect
- Rather correct
- Absolutely correct
- Absolutely inappropriate
- Probably inappropriate
- Probably appropriate
- Absolutely appropriate

These are 3 of the 12 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Corruption Tolerance Scale Test - Symptoms and Signs

legal consciousness

This instrument is designed to assess individual attitudes toward tolerating corrupt practices in everyday contexts. The Corruption Tolerance Scale presents brief scenarios to evaluate the degree to which a respondent views common forms of corruption as acceptable or justifiable. It was originally described by D. R. Cressey.

The measure includes 12 items and typically takes about 3 minutes to complete. Content is structured to capture differences in tolerance depending on situational context (e.g., business vs. daily life) and perceived motivation (e.g., convenience vs. necessity), supporting use in social research, program evaluation, and applied psychological settings. In interpretation, the Corruption Tolerance Scale is generally used to summarize overall tolerance and examine how endorsement varies across contexts.

Author: D. R. Cressey

Literature: Ajzen, I. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 1991.