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Legitimized Aggression Level Scale (LA-44)3

Legitimized Aggression Level Scale (LA-44) Test

Designed for self-reflection, the Legitimized Aggression Level Scale (LA-44) Test takes about six minutes and contains 44 questions. It explores how readily you view aggression as acceptable across public life, media, sport, upbringing, and personal experience, helping you understand your pattern of justifications and the situations that shape it.

Questions: 446 minutes

Legitimized Aggression Level Scale: situation and reply bubbles

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025Material has been updatedOctober 2, 2025Material has been published

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1,637 completions

1,358 likes

Daniel Hall Psychologist · Test reviewer

1,358 likes

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

Mass MediaMM

Assesses how strongly a person tends to justify or accept aggression portrayed in mass media as legitimate or acceptable.

example score67/70

67/70High acceptanceexample score

10 – 21Low acceptance

22 – 42Moderate acceptance

43 – 70High acceptance

A score of 67 falls in the High acceptance range, suggesting a strong tendency to view media-depicted aggression as justified or socially acceptable.

SportS

Measures how acceptable and justified a person perceives aggression within sports competitions and training contexts.

example score17/35

17/35Moderate toleranceexample score

5 – 10Low tolerance

11 – 21Moderate tolerance

22 – 35High tolerance

A score of 17 falls in the Moderate tolerance range, suggesting a situational acceptance of aggression in sports rather than a strongly permissive stance.

UpbringingU

Measures how strongly a person views aggression as acceptable when used for discipline or educational purposes in upbringing.

example score39/49

39/49High acceptanceexample score

7 – 15Low acceptance

16 – 30Moderate acceptance

31 – 49High acceptance

A score of 39 falls in the High acceptance range, suggesting a stronger tendency to justify aggressive actions when framed as part of discipline or upbringing.

Personal ExperiencePE

Measures how strongly a person justifies aggressive actions by referring to their own life experience and situations.

example score49/63

49/63Highexample score

9 – 19Low

20 – 38Moderate

39 – 63High

A score of 49 falls in the High range, suggesting a stronger tendency to rationalize socially accepted aggression using personal experience as justification.

PoliticsP

Measures the extent to which a person views aggression as justified or acceptable in political and broader social contexts.

example score50/91

50/91Moderate justificationexample score

13 – 27Low justification

28 – 55Moderate justification

56 – 91High justification

A score of 50 falls in the Moderate justification range, suggesting a selective acceptance of aggressive actions in political or social situations depending on perceived context or legitimacy.

Integral ScaleIS

Measures the overall tendency to view aggression as legitimate and acceptable in socially sanctioned situations.

example score83/161

83/161Moderateexample score

23 – 47Low

48 – 96Moderate

97 – 161High

A score of 83 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a middling acceptance of aggression as permissible in certain social contexts.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Conflict-prone team leaders

41%OF USERS

Managers and supervisors use it to see whether they normalize “tough” or aggressive tactics and how that affects workplace conflict.

Researchers and students

34%OF USERS

People in psychology, sociology, or criminology take it to measure how cultural norms shape acceptance of socially approved aggression.

Youth counselors and educators

25%OF USERS

School staff and youth workers use it to identify attitudes that may escalate peer conflicts or justify retaliatory behavior in adolescents.

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.

Shaded area — where most people score

Dot — the average

You — your score lands on each curve after the test— your score, after the test

Mass MediaMM

You?

Average31.5

Typical rangeTypical23.3 – 39.8

Possible10 – 70

SportS

You?

Average20.1

Typical rangeTypical14.7 – 25.6

Possible5 – 35

UpbringingU

You?

Average27.7

Typical rangeTypical20.9 – 34.5

Possible7 – 49

Personal experiencePe

You?

Average35.2

Typical rangeTypical25.2 – 45.2

Possible9 – 63

PolicyP

You?

Average50.5

Typical rangeTypical40 – 60.9

Possible13 – 91

Integral scaleIs

You?

Average86.4

Typical rangeTypical66.8 – 105.9

Possible23 – 161

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

Please indicate the extent to which you agree with the statements below using the provided 7-point scale. There are no right or wrong answers. Some statements may apply to you only indirectly. Please try to imagine how you would respond if they applied to you directly, and answer accordingly.

- Strongly disagree
- Disagree, but there are exceptions
- Mostly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Mostly agree
- Agree, but there are exceptions
- Strongly agree
- Completely disagree with the statement
- Disagree, but there are exceptions
- Mostly disagree
- 50/50
- Mostly agree
- Agree, but there are exceptions
- Completely agree with the statement
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree, but there are exceptions
- Somewhat disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Somewhat agree
- Agree, but there are exceptions
- Strongly agree

These are 3 of the 44 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

Legitimized Aggression Level Scale (LA-44) Test - Description and methodology of the test

aggressiveness

People who want to examine how they explain or permit aggressive acts in social life can use this questionnaire as a structured self-reflection tool. The Legitimized Aggression Level Scale (LA-44) Test focuses on judgments about when aggression seems acceptable, rather than on counting aggressive incidents. Because this aggression attitudes test presents concrete social situations, it helps identify where force, punishment, dominance, or violent imagery receive greater personal approval.

What This Assessment Measures

This legitimized aggression scale covers public power, media, sport, discipline, retaliation, weapons, and experience. Higher scores may indicate readiness to justify aggression in that context.

The result includes:

Politics (13-91) measures political justification: Low justification 13-27; Moderate justification 28-55; High justification 56-91.
Mass Media (10-70) measures acceptance of media aggression: Low acceptance 10-21; Moderate acceptance 22-42; High acceptance 43-70.
Sport (5-35) measures tolerance of athletic aggression: Low tolerance 5-10; Moderate tolerance 11-21; High tolerance 22-35.
Upbringing (7-49) measures acceptance of disciplinary aggression: Low acceptance 7-15; Moderate acceptance 16-30; High acceptance 31-49.
Personal Experience (9-63) measures experience-based justification: Low 9-19; Moderate 20-38; High 39-63.
Integral Scale (23-161) measures overall legitimized aggression: Low 23-47; Moderate 48-96; High 97-161.

Methodology and Evidence Base

The sampled statements use seven response positions, from strong disagreement to strong agreement, with intermediate choices, exception-qualified wording, and a midpoint. They ask for judgments rather than reports of observed incidents, so answers reflect how the respondent interprets each situation.

Responses produce domain scores and an integral score. No separate weighting rule is stated for the questionnaire, so these scores are reported descriptively and are best used to compare contexts within one person, not as a universal threshold.

The relevant work by Enikolopov and Tsibulsky (2008) is the closest named evidence base for this construct. The online questionnaire is conceptually consistent with that work, but is not a standardized adaptation of the published study. Kabanova and Ivashkevich (2024) link legitimization with aggressive behavior.

Sampled statements cover political force, violent media, athletic aggression, punitive upbringing, and personal retaliation, explaining why the profile separates social contexts.

Because this questionnaire is an aggression self-assessment, its self-reported profile can be shaped by current beliefs, culture, self-awareness, response bias, and changing circumstances; displayed bands are descriptive indicators, not population norms.

Author: Arnold H. Buss, Leonard Berkowitz

Literature:

Enikolopov, S. N., and Tsibulsky, N. P. (2008). Research on the Connection between Legitimization of Violence and Tendency towards Aggressive Behaviour. Psychological Science and Education, 13(1), 90-98.
Kabanova, T. N., and Ivashkevich, N. T. (2024). The Relationship between Aggressive Behavior and Legitimization of Aggression (Socio-Cultural and Gender Aspects). Bulletin of Psychotherapy, 91, 114-122.
Hogben, M., Byrne, D., Hamburger, M. E., and Osland, J. (2001). Legitimized Aggression and Sexual Coercion: Individual Differences in Cultural Spillover. Aggressive Behavior, 27(1), 26-43. 10.1002/1098-2337(20010101/31)27:1<26::AID-AB3>3.0.CO;2-V

Updated: 2025-10-02