The Rice Purity Test and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are two of the most-taken personality assessments in the world, but they have almost nothing in common beyond their popularity. One measures accumulated life experiences. The other tries to measure underlying personality patterns. They're solving completely different problems.
What each test actually measures
The Rice Purity Test asks you 100 yes-or-no questions about specific things you've done in your life. It produces a single number from 0 to 100 representing how many of those things you've done. It's an inventory of past experiences.
The MBTI asks you about preferences and tendencies — how you make decisions, where you draw your energy from, how you process information. It produces a four-letter code (like INTJ or ESFP) representing your personality type. It's an attempt to describe who you are, not what you've done.
How they were created
The MBTI was developed in the 1940s by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, based on Carl Jung's theory of psychological types. It was designed as a serious psychological instrument and is now used in corporate hiring, team-building, and career counseling worldwide. It has formal documentation, training certifications, and academic literature.
The Rice Purity Test was created by Rice University students in 1924 as a fun freshman bonding activity. It was never designed as a psychological instrument. It has no academic standing. Its cultural influence comes from being interesting and shareable, not from scientific rigor.
Scientific validity
The MBTI's scientific validity is contested. Despite its widespread use, most academic psychologists consider it methodologically weak — the four-dimensional binary typology doesn't match how personality actually distributes in real populations, test-retest reliability is poor, and the underlying Jungian theory has limited empirical support. Many psychology programs explicitly teach against using MBTI for serious purposes.
The Rice Purity Test makes no claims to scientific validity. It's a cultural artifact, not a scientific instrument. In a sense this makes it less misleading than the MBTI — it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't.
What they're each useful for
The Rice Purity Test is useful as a conversation starter, a friend- group bonding activity, and a moment of personal reflection on accumulated life experience. It works as a social object, not as a psychological assessment. Take it for the conversations it produces, not for the score itself.
The MBTI is useful as a vocabulary for talking about personality differences, even if its scientific basis is weak. The four-letter codes have entered popular language, and people often find the descriptions resonate even when the underlying typology is suspect. Treat MBTI results as approximate language, not as diagnostic information.
Can you take both?
Of course. They measure different things and don't conflict. Your Rice Purity Test score might be 73, and your MBTI type might be ENFP — these are entirely independent facts about you. Some people find both useful for different purposes. Others find one or both useless. Neither test is required, and neither produces a result that should meaningfully change how you live your life.
Quick reference
- Rice Purity Test: measures past experiences, single number score, no scientific claims, ~8 minute completion time
- MBTI: measures personality preferences, 4-letter type code, contested scientific validity, ~15 minute completion time