The History of the Rice Purity Test: From a 1924 Campus Survey to TikTok

Millions of people have taken the Rice Purity Test, but very few know where it came from. Most websites repeat the same vague story. Here is the history as it appears in the original sources: a 1924 student-newspaper survey, a wave of 1930s campus "virtue tests", a long tradition at Rice University's Orientation Week, the early internet and, finally, TikTok.

1924: a ten-question survey in The Rice Thresher

Rice University opened in Houston in 1912 as the Rice Institute, and its student newspaper, The Rice Thresher, printed its first issue in 1916. Eight years later, in March 1924, the Thresher published the results of an informal survey of 119 female undergraduates. It had just ten questions, including:

"Have you ever been drunk?"
"Did you ever dance conspicuously?"
"Have you ever done anything that you wouldn't tell your mother?"

Those questions say a lot about the 1920s, the Jazz Age of flappers, Prohibition and nervous debates about what college was doing to young people's morals. They also contain the DNA of every purity test since: short yes-or-no questions about personal experiences, asked half seriously and half as a joke.

One important detail: the survey came from students, not from the university. Rice University has never "owned" the purity test, and the many versions online today, including ours, are independent of both Rice and the Thresher.

The 1930s: purity tests spread across campuses

Rice wasn't alone for long. Through the mid-20th century, similar questionnaires popped up at universities across North America:

• Barnard College, 1935. Columbia University's humor magazine, The Jester, reported on a campus-wide purity test at Barnard. The issue was briefly censored until a university official reviewed it. The editor defended it: "It's a sociological study."
• University of Toronto, 1936. A newspaper report described students taking a "purity test" of twenty very personal questions. Marks were lost for things like smoking, drinking and kissing, then subtracted from a hundred to give a "purity ratio". That is essentially the scoring system still used today.
• Indiana University, 1939. A "Virtue Test" circulated on campus and was later preserved by folklorists.

Why folklorists call it a "questionnaire parody"

In 1975, Alan Dundes, a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, and his co-author Carl R. Pagter included purity tests in their book Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire. They reprinted the 1939 Indiana "Virtue Test" and an "Official Purity Test" passed around at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Their verdict was sharp: it was "obviously doubtful whether anyone would answer the questions posed on the test in an honest and truthful fashion", but the questions themselves revealed a lot about what a culture found exciting or taboo. In other words, the purity test was never a scientific instrument. It was folklore: a parody of official questionnaires, copied and passed from person to person. That's still the best way to understand it, as we explain in Is the Rice Purity Test accurate?

1988: the Thresher's Backpage list

Back at Rice, the Thresher kept returning to the idea, usually on its satirical Backpage. In 1988 it published an expanded list of 150 questions that students could take and score on their own. Later versions trimmed the list to the 100 questions most people know today, still opening with "Held hands romantically?" and building from there.

The Thresher's staff have held conflicting opinions about the test over the years, yet the paper kept publishing it most years. The modern Thresher-presented version, hosted at ricepuritytest.com, still includes a few in-jokes: question 69 is simply a question mark, and the instructions warn, "Caution: This is not a bucket list."

The O-Week tradition at Rice

At Rice, the purity test is tied to O-Week, the orientation week when new students move into one of the university's eleven residential colleges and meet their O-Week group. The Thresher's own description is the clearest explanation of why the test survived:

"The Purity Test has historically served as a segue from O-week to true college life at Rice. It's a voluntary opportunity for O-week groups to bond, and for students to track the maturation of their experiences throughout college."

Two ideas in that sentence explain its staying power. It's voluntary, so nobody is forced to share, and it's something you can retake, watching your score change through college. The current wording also uses the gender-neutral term MPS ("member of the preferred sex"), so the questions work for students of every sexual orientation. (Orientation itself is a different question, one no checklist can answer, as we explain in How accurate are gay tests?)

The internet era: Usenet, the early web and endless copies

Purity tests were a natural fit for the internet. They were already copied by hand and photocopier, so moving them to computer networks was easy. Lists were being shared online from around 1980, the era of early networks such as Usenet, and the first web-based purity test appeared in 1994, letting people tick boxes and get an instant score.

That copy-and-paste history is why there are now hundreds of versions. Many sites change wording, swap questions or add their own, which is why your result can differ from one website to another. Our score meaning guide explains how to compare scores fairly.

TikTok and the Gen Z revival

A century after the first survey, the test found a new audience. British newspaper The Independent reported on Gen Z TikTok users embracing a 100-question Rice purity test, while noting that it is meant for entertainment and that "purity" can be a controversial idea. The formats are familiar to anyone on social media: score-reveal videos, duets comparing results, and group chats where friends take it together.

The reason it works on social media is the same reason it worked in 1924. A single number is easy to share, invites comparison and starts a conversation. If you'd like to try it with your own group, read our guide to playing the Rice Purity Test with friends.

Criticism of the Rice Purity Test

Not everyone loves the test. In 2024, the student newspaper The Trail argued that although it "may present itself as a fun way to get to know a friend or partner, it has extremely negative implications that uphold sexism, racism, and oppressive moral puritanism". Critics point to the word "purity" itself, which suggests that experience makes someone less valuable, and to questions written around one particular kind of American college life.

Those concerns are fair. The healthiest way to use the test is the way Rice students originally did: voluntarily, among adults, with the understanding that a score describes experiences, not a person's worth.

Rice Purity Test timeline

Why the test has lasted 100 years

• It's simple. Yes-or-no questions and one number. Anyone can take it in five minutes.
• It invites comparison. Humans naturally measure themselves against each other, and a score makes that easy.
• It's a ritual. At Rice it marks the start of college life; elsewhere it marks birthdays, trips and reunions.
• It's personal but private. You decide what to share. The number can stay a secret, or become a story.

Ready to add your own chapter to a 100-year-old tradition? Take the Rice Purity Test, then find out what your score means.

Sources

• "Purity test", Wikipedia (citing The Rice Thresher, The Jester, The Independent, The Trail and Dundes & Pagter, 1975)
• The Rice Purity Test as presented by The Rice Thresher
• "The Rice Thresher", Wikipedia
• "Rice University", Wikipedia

Frequently asked questions

Who created the Rice Purity Test?

The test grew out of Rice University's student newspaper, The Rice Thresher, which published the results of a ten-question survey of female students in 1924. No single author is credited. Thresher staff revised and expanded the list over the decades, especially on the paper's satirical Backpage.

When was the Rice Purity Test created?

The earliest known version dates to 1924. The Thresher published a 150-question list in 1988, and later versions settled on the 100-question format that most people take today.

Is the Rice Purity Test run by Rice University?

No. The test comes from Rice students and their newspaper, not from the university's administration. Independent websites, including this one, host versions of the test and are not affiliated with Rice University or The Rice Thresher.

Why is it called a purity test?

The name reflects the moral language of the 1920s, when the first surveys tried to measure how "pure" or innocent students were. The scoring kept the idea: you start at 100, or completely pure, and lose a point for every experience you have had.

Was the Rice Purity Test always 100 questions?

No. The 1924 survey had ten questions, a 1936 test at the University of Toronto had twenty, and the Thresher's 1988 list had 150. The 100-question version became the standard later.

What does MPS mean in the Rice Purity Test?

MPS stands for "member of the preferred sex". It is a gender-neutral phrase that means whoever you are attracted to, so the questions work for people of every sexual orientation.