purity test

plural purity tests

1. An informal survey that assesses the participant's supposed degree of innocence in worldly matters, such as sex, drugs, and deceit.

   […] popular online “purity tests,” which use a series of 500 questions about sexual experience and drug use to establish one's level of “purity.”

   2017, Jonathan P. Eburne, Benjamin Schreier, The Year's Work in Nerds, Wonks, and Neocons, page 224

2. governmentA rigid standard on a specific issue by which a politician or other figure is evaluated.

   “President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests.”

   2025 December 21, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, quoting JD Vance, “Vance Refuses to Take Sides in G.O.P. Fight Over Bigotry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   To begin, we return to Will: “What started as a critical reading of a children's book became a social justice 'racial equity' purity test full of hypocrisy”.

   2019, Jessica S. Mitchell, Erin N. Vaughn, Participatory Literacy Practices for P-12 Classrooms in the Digital Age, page 211

   In retrospect, this was the height (or perhaps the nadir) of a kind of purity-test politics that was making some swing voters, including [Joe] Rogan, feel less at home in the Democratic coalition.

   2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN