The Innocence Test: Origins, Scoring, and How It Compares to the Rice Purity Test
If you’ve taken the Rice Purity Test and seen “The Innocence Test” mentioned alongside it, you’re not imagining a connection. It’s a real, separate quiz with its own viral history, its own scoring style, and its own creators.
Here’s the full, verified story: who made it, how it works, and how it actually differs from the original.
What Is The Innocence Test?
The Innocence Test is part of a much older tradition. Informal purity tests checking off personal experiences against a fixed list go back decades before Rice University’s own version, and the format has kept getting reinvented by new generations ever since.
The Innocence Test is a 100-statement quiz built on the same basic idea as the Rice Purity Test. You check off which statements apply to your life, and your answers produce a score.
The twist is what happens after. Instead of just a number, you get a personality-style label based on where you land: Angel, Baddie, Rebel, or Devil Child, according to the quiz’s original BuzzFeed rollout.
Who Created The Innocence Test?
The Innocence Test was created by Ella Menashe, a Pomona College student (class of 2023), and her best friend Grace Wetsel. The two originally built it as a private way to stay in touch while attending different colleges.
According to reporting from The Student Life, Pomona’s student newspaper, they started with 170 candidate statements and narrowed the list down to 100 before publishing it.
One detail worth knowing if you’re comparing the two quizzes: Menashe has said she found some Rice Purity Test questions, including ones about bestiality and incest, to be things she and Wetsel didn’t consider broadly applicable. That’s part of why they built their own version.
How The Innocence Test Went Viral
The pair published their quiz through BuzzFeed in late December 2020, initially sharing it just with friends. Wetsel posted a promotional TikTok on December 27 that went on to reach 6.7 million views and 1.6 million likes.
From there, it spread fast. According to Menashe, the BuzzFeed quiz was completed 1.4 million times within its first 24 hours online.
A few days later, the creators set up a dedicated website for the test, built by a friend of Menashe’s.
How Scoring Works
The scoring mechanic will feel familiar if you’ve taken the Rice Purity Test. Every statement you check off adds a point, and your total determines which label you land in.
Where it differs is the label itself. BuzzFeed’s quiz format required a written description for each score band, so Menashe and Wetsel wrote short, personality-style blurbs for each one. Part of the “Angel” designation, for example, is a lighthearted line about keeping up the good work.
That labeling system is the single biggest difference between the two quizzes. The Rice Purity Test hands you a plain number. The Innocence Test hands you a number and a persona.
How The Innocence Test Differs From The Rice Purity Test
| Rice Purity Test | The Innocence Test | |
|---|---|---|
| Creators | Rice University students, first published 1924 | Ella Menashe and Grace Wetsel, Pomona College, 2020 |
| Result format | A plain numerical score | A score plus a written personality label (Angel, Baddie, Rebel, Devil Child) |
| Content focus | Broad list built up and revised over a century | Written specifically to reflect modern-day behavior, including things like sexting |
| Official home | ricepuritytest.com, run by The Rice Thresher | theinnocencetest.com, run independently by its creators |
| How it spread | Word of mouth since 1924, later TikTok | Went viral almost immediately via a single December 2020 TikTok |
Is The Innocence Test Controversial?
Yes, in a specific and well-documented way. As the quiz spread, comments on the promotional TikToks started treating the statement list as a to-do list to work through, rather than a simple self-assessment.
The creators pushed back on this directly, adding a line to their own site stating the test is not a bucket list and that they don’t endorse the behaviors it describes.
According to The Student Life, the creators became especially concerned when they saw comments from users as young as 13 and 14 treating the quiz that way. Other users criticized the inclusion of statements like driving under the influence, arguing their presence on the list could read as encouragement.
Menashe has stood by the test despite that criticism, saying she never wants her own score to hit a perfect 100 precisely because some of the listed items are meant to represent genuinely risky behavior, not goals.
Common Misconceptions
| Misconception | Reality |
|---|---|
| The Innocence Test was created by TikTok users from Oregon | It was created by Ella Menashe and Grace Wetsel, both connected to Pomona College in California, according to their own college newspaper’s reporting |
| MPS on these tests stands for “Mischievous Personality Spectrum” | That term doesn’t come from any verified source. On the actual Rice Purity Test, MPS stands for “Member of the Preferred Sex,” a separate and unrelated abbreviation |
| The Innocence Test and Rice Purity Test use identical questions | They’re separate lists. The Innocence Test was written from scratch to reflect more modern behavior, not copied from the Rice Purity Test |
| A high Innocence Test score is simply better | The creators themselves have said some items are included specifically because they’re risky, not because avoiding them all is a real goal |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created The Innocence Test?
Ella Menashe and Grace Wetsel, two friends connected to Pomona College, created it in 2020. Menashe has spoken publicly about the project in interviews with her college newspaper.
Is The Innocence Test the same as the Rice Purity Test?
No. It’s a separate quiz inspired by the Rice Purity Test’s format, but written with its own 100 statements and its own scoring labels.
What do the Innocence Test result labels mean?
Each score range comes with a written label such as Angel, Baddie, Rebel, or Devil Child, along with a short, informal description. It’s meant as lighthearted flavor text, not a real personality assessment.
Where can I take The Innocence Test?
The creators built a dedicated site for it shortly after it went viral. Search for “The Innocence Test” to find the official version, since several unofficial copies have appeared online as well.
Is The Innocence Test appropriate for teenagers?
The quiz includes mature themes similar to the Rice Purity Test, and its own creators have expressed concern about very young users engaging with it. It’s intended for an older teen and young-adult audience, not younger kids.
Curious About the Original Test?
If you haven’t taken the Rice Purity Test yet, or want to understand what your number actually means, check out our full guide to Rice Purity Score Meaning.