What Is the Rice Purity Test?

What “purity” means here

“Purity” sounds like a moral verdict, but on this test it never was one. Students used the word with a wink: the joke was that anyone could be ranked by a checklist of mostly harmless milestones. A higher score only means fewer boxes checked.

That irony has faded as the test spread to people without the campus context. Some treat a high score as something to be proud of and a low one as something to hide. Neither makes sense. The most accurate reading of your result is simply: “this many items on this particular list apply to me.”

Why is it called the Rice Purity Test?

Because it comes from Rice University. The student newspaper, the Rice Thresher, published an informal ten-question “purity” survey of undergraduates as far back as 1924, and the paper revisited and expanded the idea many times after that. Similar tests circulated at other colleges through the twentieth century, but the Rice version is the one that stuck, moved online, and became the 100-question list people know today.

Rice University does not run or endorse any website that hosts the test, including this one. The full story is on our history page.

How it works

• There are 100 items, ordered roughly from common (held hands romantically) to rare.
• You check every item that has ever applied to you. Recent or not doesn't matter.
• Each check subtracts one point from 100. All items weigh the same.
• You can read every item first on the questions page, see what your number means on the score guide, and compare it with typical scores by age.

What does MPS mean on the Rice Purity Test?

MPS stands for "member of the preferred sex": the gender you are attracted to. The version on this site uses gender-neutral wording such as "non-family member" or "someone" instead, so the meaning is the same whoever you are attracted to.

Why people take it

Mostly social comparison. People want to know how they stack up against friends, a partner or a roommate. That's not a flaw; it's the point. The campus version worked because it gave a room full of strangers something to talk about, and sharing a score still opens conversations that are hard to start directly.

A single number is also oddly satisfying. You can't easily compare life experiences, but “I got a 62, you got a 74” is instantly understandable, even if it hides almost everything interesting.

What it can and can't tell you

It tells you one thing reliably: how many of its 100 items you've experienced. The list leans heavily toward romantic, sexual and risk-taking experiences and ignores almost everything else about a life, such as travel, work, friendships or creativity.

It also can't see context. Something that happened once, years ago, counts the same as something that is part of your life now. Treat the score as a prompt for reflection, not a conclusion. If your number surprises you, the more interesting question is what you expected and why.

Is it official, and is it private?

There is no official online version. Many sites host the list, usually with small wording changes; ours is explained on the questions page, including the three items we replaced.

On this site your answers stay in your browser and are never sent to us.

Sources for historical dates: the 1924 Thresher issue in Rice University's digital collections, and Wikipedia, “Purity test”.