Tests like the Rice Purity Test
Rice's is the famous one, but purity tests have been passed around campuses and newspapers for almost a century.
Purity tests through history
These come from Wikipedia's article on purity tests and the sources it cites[1]. We have not read every original.
| Year | Test | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Rice University (Thresher) | 10 questions, 119 women students[2] |
| 1935 | Barnard College | Reported by Columbia's humor magazine, The Jester; that issue was briefly censored[1] |
| 1936 | University of Toronto | 20 personal questions, marks taken off for smoking, drinking and kissing, the rest out of 100 called the "purity ratio"[1] |
| 1939 | Indiana University | A "Virtue Test", later recorded by folklorists Alan Dundes and Carl Pagter[1] |
| 1966 | Ann Landers column | A purity test printed in the advice column, from "Ever said I love you?" to group sex. A La Grange, Texas teacher was fired in 1976 for giving it to her students; she sued and was awarded USD 71,000 in back pay and damages[1] |
| By 1975 (published) | Caltech "Official Purity Test" | Reprinted by Dundes and Pagter alongside the 1939 Indiana "Virtue Test", as examples of a "questionnaire parody"[1] |
| 1980s to 1994 | Online purity tests | Purity tests were shared online from around 1980; the first web-based test appeared in 1994[1][3] |
| 1988 | Rice, 100 items | The format most modern tests copy[2] |
| 2009 | The Purity Test (book) | A book of purity tests by Joselin Linder[3] |
Why so many?
A list of yes-or-no questions with a single number at the end is easy to copy, easy to share and easy to argue about. That made purity tests a natural fit for campus papers, photocopies, the early internet and, much later, TikTok[4].
Games that work the same way
- Never Have I Ever. The spoken version: someone names a thing they have never done, and anyone who has done it owns up. The Thresher found students going straight from the test to this game[2].
- Themed "purity tests". Online you will find nerd, gamer, Disney and other themed lists. They borrow the format, not the history, and very few people search for them.
Other tests on this site
- The Innocence Test: 100 questions with no sex items, written for teens and anyone who wants a clean version.
- The Fanfiction Purity Test: 100 questions about AO3, tropes, tags and fandom life.
Want the classic? Take the 100-item Rice Purity Test or play it as a group.
Ready? Take the Rice Purity Test. Your answers never leave your device.
Sources
- "Purity test", Wikipedia, read 2 October 2026. Used for the purity tests outside Rice (1935 to 2009) and their references. Link
- Emily Abdow, "Purity Test evolves, spreads beyond Rice", The Rice Thresher, 23 August 2017. Link
- Joselin Linder, The Purity Test: Your Filth and Depravity Cheerfully Exposed, Macmillan, 2009.
- Joanna Whitehead, "What is the Rice purity test and how do you play?", The Independent, 11 July 2022. Link