What is the Rice Purity Test?
The Rice Purity Test is a 100-question, yes-or-no survey about life experiences that gives you a score out of 100. Each question is worth one point: the more you answer “no,” the higher your score, and 100 is the most “pure” you can get. It's the same basic formula behind pretty much every purity test you'll find today.
It isn't science and it isn't a psych evaluation. It's a college tradition that turned into an internet thing, and plenty of people have taken it without knowing where it came from. If you want to know what your number actually means, our guide to understanding your purity test score covers it.
Rice Purity Test history, from 1924 to today
The Rice Purity Test's history stretches across almost a century, with four key dates. The test changed size over the years, but never its basic idea.
- 1924: The Rice Thresher prints a 10-question test taken by 119 female students. Their average score is 62, the only historical average that's actually sourced, as this Rice Thresher piece recounts.
- 1974: the 10-question test gets republished in the paper, fifty years after it first ran.
- 1988: a much longer version comes out. Sources don't agree on exactly how many questions it had.
- 2012: the current 100-question version is released. It's the one you'll find at ricepuritytest.com today. Each question is worth one point, and 100 is still the most “pure” score, per the Rice Thresher's announcement.
Why is it called the Rice Purity Test?
It's called the Rice Purity Test because it came out of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and its student paper, The Rice Thresher. Nothing to do with the grain. Rice is just the university's name, which comes from its founder, William Marsh Rice.
The name stuck so well that people often say “rice purity test” when they mean any purity test at all. Plenty of versions floating around online borrow the name without having anything to do with the school.
Before Rice: the original campus purity tests
Rice wasn't the only campus with a purity test. Other schools had their own as early as the 1930s, including versions tied to Columbia in 1935 and Indiana University in 1939, as laid out on Wikipedia's purity test page.
The format never really changed: a list of questions, yes-or-no answers, a total that gets people talking. If the Rice version ended up overshadowing the rest, its 2012 edition, online and a couple of clicks away for anyone, probably had a lot to do with it.
How it spread: the internet, social media and beyond
The internet is what got the Rice Purity Test off campus: once it was online, it got shared, copied and talked about way beyond Houston. Social media did the rest, with people posting their scores, comparing with friends and daring each other to take it.
As it traveled, the idea got translated and adapted everywhere. In France, for example, it's known as the “test de pureté,” and you'll find both rough translations of the American quiz and tests written from scratch for a French-speaking crowd. The original stays in English, and its questions were written with American college students in mind, which is a big reason adapted versions keep popping up.
These days “purity test” is a generic term for any list of experiences scored out of 100, on pretty much any theme. If you want to see what freshly written questions look like, browse our purity test question examples.
Rice Purity Test vs. Test de Pureté: what's different
Test de Pureté has no connection to Rice University or The Rice Thresher. It's an independent app made by Overheat Studio that uses the general purity test format without borrowing a single question from the Rice test. Every question was written from scratch for the app.
Where the Rice test is one single list, Test de Pureté splits things into modes, so you get to pick the theme and how awkward it gets.
- 8 themed modes instead of one list: Chill, Squad, Couples, Money, Trash, Hot, No Limit and Ultimate, including a couples purity test built for two.
- Clear heat levels, from mild for Chill to scorching for Couples, Trash, Hot and No Limit.
- 100 questions per mode, and 700 in Ultimate, which combines every mode.
- Friend comparison: both scores side by side, without revealing your answers. Perfect for a purity test with friends.
- Anonymity: no answer tied to your identity, and a story card that shows your score and verdict, never your answers.
Try a purity test made for today
If you came here looking for the original Rice test, you might as well try something built for now. The Chill preview at the top of this page asks you 6 questions and scores you instantly, without sending your answers anywhere. For the full 100 questions and the other modes, grab the free Test de Pureté app on iPhone or Android.
