Sources
Every fact about the test's history on this site comes from one of these. We mark which ones we read in full and which we know through Wikipedia's reference list.
- "Rice Girls Not Quite Half Bad", The Thresher, Vol. 9, No. 22, 7 March 1924 (Rice University Digital Scholarship Archive). digitalcollections.rice.edu Known through Wikipedia's reference list; original not read by us.
- "The New and Improved 1988 Rice Trasher Purity Test", The Rice Thresher, Vol. 75, No. 24.5, 1 April 1988 (Rice University Digital Scholarship Archive). digitalcollections.rice.edu Known through Wikipedia's reference list; original not read by us.
- Anthony Lauriello, "Release of new purity test long overdue", The Rice Thresher, 17 August 2012. ricethresher.org Read in full, 2 Oct 2026.
- Emily Abdow, "Purity Test evolves, spreads beyond Rice", The Rice Thresher, 23 August 2017. ricethresher.org Read in full, 2 Oct 2026.
- Frannie Edwards-Hughes, "The Impure Truth About the Rice Purity Test", The Trail (University of Puget Sound), 11 April 2024. trail.pugetsound.edu Read in full, 2 Oct 2026.
- Joanna Whitehead, "What is the Rice purity test and how do you play?", The Independent, 11 July 2022. independent.co.uk Known through Wikipedia's reference list; original not read by us.
- "Purity test", Wikipedia, read 2 October 2026. Used for the purity tests outside Rice (1935 to 2009) and their references. en.wikipedia.org Read in full, 2 Oct 2026.
- Joselin Linder, The Purity Test: Your Filth and Depravity Cheerfully Exposed, Macmillan, 2009. Known through Wikipedia's reference list; original not read by us.
- The Rice Purity Test as published by the Rice Thresher, ricepuritytest.com. ricepuritytest.com Read in full, 2 Oct 2026.
How we handle numbers
- We only state a figure if a named source published it, and we say who, where and when.
- Where nobody publishes a figure (a national average, an average by age), we say so instead of estimating.
- Score meanings are our own reading of the scale, and we say that on every page that shows them.
Spotted an error? Email hello@myricepurity.com and we will fix it and date the change.