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Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale3

Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale Test

With 40 questions and an estimated eight minutes to complete, the Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale Test profiles endorsed preferences involving challenge, novelty, monotony, and intense sensations. The result can support self-reflection by showing how these tendencies are distributed across the displayed dimensions.

Questions: 408 minutes

Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale: situation and reply bubbles

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

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Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

Maladaptive Challenge Seeking (UA)MCS

Measures a person’s tendency to seek out and persist in difficult, challenging situations in a confrontational way rather than avoiding them.

example score11/20

11/20Highexample score

0 – 10Low

11 – 20High

A score of 11 falls in the High range, suggesting a relatively strong inclination to take on difficulties and respond to challenges in a more confrontational, assertive manner.

Sensation Seeking (ES)SS

Measures openness to novelty and the tendency to seek new, varied experiences rather than sticking to familiar routines.

example score13/20

13/20High novelty seekingexample score

0 – 10Low novelty seeking

11 – 20High novelty seeking

A score of 13 falls in the High novelty seeking range, suggesting a relatively strong preference for new experiences and change over familiar, traditional options.

Intolerance of Monotony (BS)IoM

Intolerance of Monotony measures how strongly a person experiences routine and repetitive activity as aversive and seeks variety instead.

example score12/20

12/20Highexample score

0 – 10Low

11 – 20High

A score of 12 falls in the High range, suggesting routine tasks are more likely to feel burdensome and that varied, stimulating activities may be preferred.

Sensation Seeking (TAS)SS

Thrill Seeking (TAS) measures the tendency to pursue intense, exciting experiences and willingness to seek thrills in risky situations.

example score13/20

13/20Elevatedexample score

0 – 9Low

10 – 20Elevated

A score of 13 falls in the Elevated range, indicating a stronger-than-average preference for thrilling experiences and a higher readiness to engage in high-arousal, riskier activities.

just completed the test

DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Thrill seekers and adventurers

41%OF USERS

People who love intense experiences (extreme sports, fast driving, spontaneous trips) take it to see how strong their need for thrills and risk really is.

Safety and high-risk professionals

34%OF USERS

Rescuers, security staff, trainers, and others in risky environments use it to understand who stays cautious versus who may overreach under pressure.

Self-awareness and self-control

25%OF USERS

People who notice impulsive decisions or risky habits take it to pinpoint their triggers and set more realistic boundaries.

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

Maladaptive striving for difficulties (UA)

You?

Average5

Typical rangeTypical1.4 – 8.7

Possible0 – 20

Seeking New Experiences (ES)

You?

Average10.1

Typical rangeTypical7.6 – 12.6

Possible0 – 20

Intolerance of Monotony (IM)

You?

Average6.5

Typical rangeTypical3.5 – 9.5

Possible0 – 20

Thrill Seeking (TAS)

You?

Average5.2

Typical rangeTypical2.5 – 8

Possible0 – 20

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

Below are statements concerning various hobbies, interests, and viewpoints. Your task is to select the response option that best applies to you. When answering, please keep the following in mind: • The items are too brief to include all necessary details. If you feel it is impossible to answer precisely, provide an approximate answer. Do not spend much time thinking; give the first answer that comes to mind. • Try to avoid intermediate or uncertain responses, except when it is truly impossible to answer otherwise; no more than one uncertain response for every 5–6 items. • If you feel that an item does not apply to you, try to imagine that it does; you must still provide an answer. • Remember that there are no “good” or “bad” answers. Do not try to create a favorable impression through your responses; express your opinion freely.

- Yes, true
- Unsure
- Not true
- Yes, that is true
- Not sure
- Not true
- Yes, true
- Difficult to say
- Not true

These are 3 of the 40 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale Test - Description and methodology of the test

search for sensations

People who want to examine how they respond to novelty, obstacles, uncertainty, and intense experiences may find the Extreme Risk-Taking Tendency Scale Test useful for structured self-reflection. It is intended for readers who can evaluate their own preferences and risk-related tendencies across demanding, unfamiliar, or stimulating situations. The profile can show how a respondent approaches novelty, obstacles, and stimulation.

What This Assessment Explores

This assessment profiles preferences rather than actions. Questions cover challenge, novelty, monotony, and intense experiences, forming an extreme risk-taking profile.

The four dimensions are:

Maladaptive Challenge Seeking (UA), 0-20, reflects striving to overcome difficulties and proneness to conflict: Low 0-10 may indicate responsibility avoidance or adaptation difficulties; High 11-20 marks challenge seeking.
Sensation Seeking (ES), 0-20, reflects novelty orientation: Low novelty seeking 0-10 may indicate rigidity and rule-bound views; High novelty seeking 11-20 is the high band.
Intolerance of Monotony (BS), 0-20, reflects routine discomfort: Low 0-10 indicates repetitive-work preference; High 11-20 indicates intolerance and may accompany hyperthymic traits.
Sensation Seeking (TAS), 0-20, reflects intense-sensation attraction: Low 0-9 is the low band; Elevated 10-20 may indicate predisposition to serious incidents and intense sensation seeking, with possible elevation on MMPI Scales 4 and 9.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Representative items use three self-report options, usually yes, unsure, or not true. They move between everyday preferences and vivid situations involving unfamiliar foods, travel, unusual clothing, diving, flying, and difficult tasks. This format asks the respondent to endorse or reject tendencies across contexts rather than report one completed act.

Several displayed labels are conceptually consistent with dimensions in Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale Form V, especially Experience Seeking, Boredom Susceptibility, and Thrill and Adventure Seeking. This sensation-seeking questionnaire uses related ideas, but that relationship does not establish shared scoring or provenance. Zuckerman’s model treats attraction to novel, complex, and intense experiences as multidimensional, which fits the questionnaire’s varied situations without establishing identical scoring.

Scoring is presented through ranges and result bands, but the questionnaire does not specify how individual responses contribute to the scores. The result is therefore best read as an assessment of endorsed preferences, not a record of actual risk-taking.

Current mood, self-awareness, honesty, and social desirability can shift self-report results, so the profile is a snapshot rather than a definitive or diagnostic conclusion.

Author: Frank H. Farley, Marvin Zuckerman

Literature:

Shamionov, Rail M. (2021). Social Activity and Risk Propensity of Students with Autonomous and Dependent Types of Subject Regulation. Social Psychology and Society, 12(1), 94-112. 10.17759/sps.2021120107.
Zuckerman, Marvin, Sybil B. Eysenck, and Hans J. Eysenck (1978). Sensation Seeking in England and America: Cross-Cultural, Age, and Sex Comparisons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46(1), 139-149. 10.1037/0022-006X.46.1.139.
Farley, Frank H. (1967). Social Desirability and Dimensionality in the Sensation-Seeking Scale. Acta Psychologica, 26(1), 89-96. 10.1016/0001-6918(67)90009-1.
Zuckerman, Marvin (1979). Sensation Seeking: Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Updated: 2025-10-02