The original Rice Purity Test and every version since
"Original" can mean two things: the 1924 newspaper survey, or the 2012 list the Thresher publishes today. Here is every version we can source.
The versions side by side
| Version | Format | What stood out |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 10 questions, 10 points each; women only | Broken engagements, dancing, being drunk, cheating; average 62[1][2] |
| 1974 | The 10 questions, reprinted to mail in | Results never published[2] |
| 1988 | 100 questions, 1 point each | "MOS"; same-sex items placed lower; included sexual crimes; "add two points if you do not understand"[2] |
| 1998 | Item count not stated in our sources | Molestation and rape items removed; "MPS"; item 69 is "?"; still an item on using alcohol on a partner[2] |
| 2008 | Item count not stated in our sources | Cruder wording; last item about not washing your hands[2] |
| 2012 | 100 items, 1 point each | Rewritten to remove gender and sexuality bias, every item consensual; phones added, drive-ins gone[3] |
The 1924 original
Ten questions put to 119 women at Rice, printed under the headline "Rice Girls Not Quite Half Bad"[1]. Its concerns were a 1920s chaperone's: engagements broken, things you would not tell your mother. Two ideas survive: cheating and being drunk[2]. You cannot fairly compare a 1924 score with a modern one: the questions, the scale and the audience were all different.
The 2012 version, which most people mean by "official"
The Backpage editors refused to print the test in 2011, then rewrote it in 2012[2]. Their reasons, in Lauriello's words: the old lists were dated, they ranked same-sex activity as less pure, and one item punished the victim of a rape along with the rapist[3]. The new list is what the Thresher publishes at ricepuritytest.com[4].
Is there an updated Rice Purity Test?
Many sites call themselves the updated, modern or new Rice Purity Test. Most reuse the 2012 list or edit it. None of them, ours included, is an official update: only the Thresher can make one, and its list still dates from 2012[5].
Ours
Our list follows the 2012 approach in our own words: same ten-by-ten structure, same mild-to-far order, "someone" instead of "MPS", every item consensual, item 69 kept as "?" and a final item that nods to 2008. Read all 100.
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Sources
- "Rice Girls Not Quite Half Bad", The Thresher, Vol. 9, No. 22, 7 March 1924 (Rice University Digital Scholarship Archive). Link
- Emily Abdow, "Purity Test evolves, spreads beyond Rice", The Rice Thresher, 23 August 2017. Link
- Anthony Lauriello, "Release of new purity test long overdue", The Rice Thresher, 17 August 2012. Link
- The Rice Purity Test as published by the Rice Thresher, ricepuritytest.com. Link
- Frannie Edwards-Hughes, "The Impure Truth About the Rice Purity Test", The Trail (University of Puget Sound), 11 April 2024. Link