How Much of a Sensation Seeker Are You?
Speed, novelty, wild nights and the horror of the same old thing
Some people need more stimulation than others to feel fully awake. Psychologists have studied this since the 1960s and found that it comes in four flavours which do not always go together: physical thrills, new experiences, letting go in company, and a low tolerance for repetition. You can love travelling to odd places and hate roller coasters. The mix you have explains a good deal about your holidays, your friendships and the jobs you get tired of.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about what you actually enjoy, not about what a braver or calmer person would say.
What it measures
Zuckerman's four facets of sensation seeking: thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. It is about the need for varied and intense stimulation - not about acting without thinking, which is impulsivity, and not about how you weigh risks with money or health, which is what risk-taking tests measure.
Based on: Sensation seeking (Zuckerman) and the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (Hoyle et al., 2002)
Possible results
Thrill and adventure
The appeal of speed, height and physical danger.
Experience seeking
Wanting new places, ideas, people and sensations.
Disinhibition
Enjoying loud company and dropping your usual restraint.
Boredom susceptibility
How badly repetition and predictability wear on you.
Common questions
Is sensation seeking the same as impulsivity?
No, though the two often travel together. Sensation seeking is wanting intense and varied experiences; impulsivity is acting before thinking. A skydiver who spends months training and checking equipment is high in sensation seeking and low in impulsivity. Researchers treat them as related but separate traits, and Quinthea has a separate impulsivity test.
Does sensation seeking decrease with age?
Yes, on average and quite steadily. It tends to peak in the late teens and early twenties and fall afterwards, especially thrill seeking and disinhibition. Experience seeking usually holds up better, which is why many people still love travel and new ideas long after they have lost interest in fast cars.
Is being a high sensation seeker bad?
Not in itself. The trait is linked to openness and creativity, and many people channel it into sport, travel or demanding jobs such as emergency work. The risk lies in the outlets available: without safe ones, the same need is more likely to find unsafe ones, which is why prevention research has focused on it.
How is this different from a boredom test?
Boredom susceptibility here is one facet of four and means disliking repetition and predictable people. General boredom proneness, which Quinthea measures separately, is a broader tendency to find life dull and hard to engage with. You can be intolerant of routine and still rarely feel bored, because you keep changing things.
Sources
- Hoyle, R. H., Stephenson, M. T., Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., & Donohew, R. L. (2002). Reliability and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00032-0
- Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. Cambridge University Press.
- Zuckerman, M., Eysenck, S. B., & Eysenck, H. J. (1978). Sensation seeking in England and America: Cross-cultural, age, and sex comparisons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.46.1.139
An honest note The statements here are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from Zuckerman's four facets and the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale, so your scores cannot be compared with published norms. Sensation seeking peaks in the late teens and falls with age, and men score higher on average on thrill seeking and disinhibition. The scales were built mainly in the United States and Britain, and some activities mean different things in other cultures. This is a normal personality trait, not a measure of risky behaviour or of any problem.