The Brief Version of the Need Inventory of Sensation Seeking (NISS-6)

Abstract: A six-item short form of the Need Inventory of Sensation Seeking (NISS-6) was previously developed using the same data set used to standardize the long version. In the current study, we evaluated the NISS-6 in a sample that was representative of the German general population in 2024, comprising individuals between the ages of 16 and 96 years, along with scales for measuring anxiety and depression. The results showed that the NISS-6 is factorially valid and can be sufficiently well-differentiated from anxiety and depression. Furthermore, in line with expectations, we found small gender differences and large age differences. However, we found significantly lower internal consistencies for the overall scale and the subscales from the NISS-6 compared with the full 17-item version. In addition to the smaller number of items, the lower reliability can also be attributed to the intended heterogeneity in the item content.