History Main / SecretTestOfCharacter

* This is one interpretation of ''WebVideo/TheBoothAtTheEnd''. People who decide not to follow through on morally reprehensible tasks tend to get what they wanted anyway.

* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'': In ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic'', Lorelai is somewhat disconcerted to find that the "minion exam" is...a series of baking challenges, which she's not allowed to use magic on, and can't see how playing out ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'' is . [[spoiler:Because Giovanni, a HarmlessVillain to the bone, is testing ''willingness to fail'', because he sees a villain's job as to be loud and dramatic and cool but ultimately lose so the good guys can also have a good time. When he gives her a zero for cheating repeatedly, Lori actually takes a little while to grasp the actual problem, cementing the failure by begging for another chance to do the baking right.]]

A SubTrope of SweetAndSourGrapes and SecretTest. Contrast IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten, which is this trope applied to [[KickTheDog villainous behavior]]. AngelUnaware, AChatWithSatan, GoodnessExam, HonestAxe, LeaveYourQuestTest, NiceToTheWaiter, and UnwinnableTrainingSimulation are related types of tests. WhatYouAreInTheDark is related as well: Most Secret Tests involve putting you in the dark to test you.

* This one is an old favourite of professors. One example is a professor telling the class that the next lecture will have no new material for the upcoming exam or that he/she's hosting an optional review session at some inconvenient time like Friday night. Anyone who is diligent enough to attend regardless gets a massive help for the upcoming exam, such as a list of topics that will most definitely be on it. As for the first example, no lies were told as it was stated that [[ExactWords no NEW material would be covered]]. How fair this is to the students who could not or chose not to attend the review session is up to you.

* Goofy employs one on Max in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. They're on a road trip, and they come to a junction where. Taking the left way would lead to Los Angeles, where Max wants to go. Taking the right way would lead to Lake Destiny in Idaho, where Goofy wants to go. [[spoiler:Max changed the route on the family map to take them to Los Angeles instead of Lake Destiny. Goofy discovered this with Pete's influence the night before, so he decides for himself how Max was going to choose. This after proclaiming to Pete that he trusts Max to make the right choice. However, Max chooses to go left. Goofy complies, but he then enters TranquilFury as a RageBreakingPoint, knowing that Max failed the test. This results in a ThirdActMisunderstanding.]]

* Goofy employs one on Max in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. The two eventually come to a junction where going left would lead to what Max wants, and going right would lead to what Goofy wants. [[spoiler:Max changed the route on the family map to take them to Los Angeles instead of Lake Destiny in Idaho. Goofy discovered this with Pete's influence the night before, so he decides for himself how Max was going to choose. This after proclaiming to Pete that he trusts Max to make the right choice. However, Max chooses to go left. Goofy complies, but he then enters TranquilFury as a RageBreakingPoint, knowing that Max failed the test. This results in a ThirdActMisunderstanding.]]

A SubTrope of SweetAndSourGrapes and SecretTest. Contrast IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten, which is this trope applied to [[KickTheDog villainous behavior]]. AngelUnaware, AChatWithSatan, HonestAxe, LeaveYourQuestTest, NiceToTheWaiter, and UnwinnableTrainingSimulation are related types of tests. WhatYouAreInTheDark is related as well: Most Secret Tests involve putting you in the dark to test you.

Watch for ExactWords. When a character is told that the prize depends on the "results" or "outcome" rather than the success, it will be [[HalfTruth phrased in such a manner]] that no one would, at first glance, take it to mean anything but success, but the character saying it can point out that they are doing exactly what they said. (If more than one character tried, and one succeeded in the ostensible goal but still failed the test, expect [[TheResenter bitterness]].)

* Goofy employs one on Max in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. The two eventually come to a junction where going left would lead to what Max wants, and going right would lead to what Goofy wants. [[spoiler:Max changed the route on the family map to take them to Los Angeles instead of Lake Destiny in Idaho. Goofy already knew about this since the night before thanks to Pete, but Goofy wanted to see what Max was going to choose after proclaiming to Pete that he trusts Max to make the right choice. However, Max chooses to go left. While Goofy complies, he immediately enters TranquilFury as a RageBreakingPoint, knowing that Max failed the test. This results in a ThirdActMisunderstanding.]]

** In the penultimate chapter, Masaki gives one to both heroines simply by asking a shocking question.

OldBeggarTest is a SubTrope involving a powerful figure disguised in rags testing the hero's moral capacities. If it's not a test of moral character, it's just a SecretTest or a HiddenPurposeTest.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/JosephKingOfDreams'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oL6HlzQZLo "You Know Better Than I"]]

* [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RtL3mgQ0M4Y In this commercial for]] [[spoiler:Trojan condoms]] which was banned (for good reason, it seems) a young woman tests her boyfriend by convincing her sister to try seducing him. [[spoiler:She only ''thinks'' he passes the test; the commercial seems to have been based on the first entry under "Jokes" below.]]

* In Case 49 of ''WebOriginal/TheCodelessCode'', Master Banzen tests a series of monks. He tells them to wait in a room while he studies their source code. In fact, he's testing whether they'll clean up the paper sack he discarded in that room (and by extension, whether they clean up their code without being asked).

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' Gil's father gives him a lot of these to prepare him for rule. His introduction is a two-part one: To see if he's intelligent enough to notice that his father's theory is fundamentally flawed, and to see if he has the ability to [[InsurrectionistInheritor confront his father when he is wrong]].

* Serbian ballad "Wise girl outwits Marko" ("Devojka nadmudrila Marka") is about a poor girl who is asked to be a wife of three folk heroes, Marko Kraljević, duke Janko and Ustupčić Pavle. They all come to her house on the same day to get married, followed by thousand wedding guests each. Marko comes with a test: each hero would put a blanket in front on himself and put his golden signet ring and a golden apple on it. Whoever's ring or apple the girl picks up she will marry. The girl doesn't touch anything and tells the following "Goodbrother Marko, Godfather Janko, The apple is a child's play, the golden ring is a sign of a hero. I will go with Ustupčić Pavle." Marko gets angry because she didn't choose him and he had failed to trick her. He reveals that if she so much as touched an apple or a ring, he would have cut her head off because she would have revealed herself as a greedy and foolish wife.

The character is undertaking a challenge of courage, strength or skill for some important prize. However, at a critical moment, TheHero is confronted with doing something that is [[DirtyBusiness morally unacceptable]]. Despite being warned about a forfeit if the reprehensible act is not done, the hero reluctantly stands by the decision and accepts that the challenge is lost, expecting no credit for the deed, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark often not expecting anyone to know]].

However, the hero is then told that that forfeiting the challenge in this way is exactly what was needed to triumph. It was actually [[OnlyTheWorthyMayPass a test of character]], and they have passed with flying colors.

* Serbian ballad "Wise girl outwits Marko" ("Devojka nadmudrila Marka") is about a poor girl who is asked to be a wife of three folk heroes, Marko Kraljević, duke Janko and Ustupčić Pavle. They all come to her house on the same day to get married, followed by thousand wedding guests each. Marko comes with a test: each hero would put a blanket in front on himself and put his golden signet ring and a golden apple on it. Whoever's ring or apple the girl picks up she will marry. The girl doesn't touch anything and tells the following "Goodbrother Marko, Godfather Janko, The apple is a child's play, the golden ring is a sign of a hero. I will go with Ustupčić Pavle." Marko gets angry, because she didn't choose him and he had failed to trick her. He reveals that if she so much as touched an apple or a ring, he would have cut her head off, because she would have revealed herself as greedy and foolish wife.

* In one Grimm story ([[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1451.html "Choosing a Bride" or "The Cheese Test"]]), a young man goes courting and meets three girls of appropriate age and social status, and is unable to choose between them. His mother suggests to serve each cheese with the rind still on, and watch how they eat it. The first girl eats the cheese [[ExtremeOmnivore rind and all]], revealing that she is gluttonous and lazy. The second girl takes a knife and chops off the rind, but also a lot of the good cheese, revealing that she is wasteful and careless. The third trims off the rind without wasting any cheese, proving that she is attentive and hardworking.
* In one Vuk Karadžić story ([[http://www.ringeraja.rs/clanak/sljive-za-dubre_3361.html "Šljive za đubre" or "Plums for trash"]]), a man wants to find a worthy bride for his son. So he gathers a full horse cart of plums and moves through the village, shouting "Plums for trash". People hear about the crazy man and start bringing him buckets of dust, trash, wood fillings and all sort of garbage. Finally, a young girl brings him barely a fist of dust from her house and asks him if it is worth at least one plum. He asks her why she didn't bring him more dust. The answer? I don't have any in my house. She is the one who the son marries, because she has proven herself to be hardworking and clean.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', the rich Mr. Whitmore gives Milo Thach the Shepard's Journal at his late grandfather's request. Mr. Whitmore considers the idea of Atlantis to be a hoax and the journal useless, with or without Milo's linguistic talents. As he continues to shoot down Milo's ideas of an expedition and pointing out how no one will help him, Milo explodes and affirms he'll find Atlantis even if he has to do it alone in a row boat. Mr. Whitmore then smiles and congratulates Milo; Seeing his determination convinces Whitmore to go forward with fully funding a large scale expedition to find Atlantis.

* Goofy employs one on Max in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. The two eventually come on a junction where going left on would lead to what Max wants, and going right would lead to what Goofy wants. [[spoiler:Max changed the route on the family map to take them to Los Angeles instead of Lake Destiny in Idaho. Goofy already knew about this since the night before thanks to Pete, but Goofy wanted to see what Max was going to choose after proclaiming to Pete that he trusts Max to make the right choice. However, Max chooses to go left. While Goofy complies, he immediately enters TranquilFury as a RageBreakingPoint, knowing that Max failed the test. This results in a ThirdActMisunderstanding.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1'', Twilight Sparkle enlists the aid of the [[AlternateSelf alternate-universe counterparts]] of her friends in Equestria in winning the title of Princess of the Fall Formal (and Twilight's Element of Magic) away from [[AlphaBitch Sunset Shimmer]]. Human Rainbow Dash agrees to help, but only if Twilight can beat her in a one-on-one soccer game. Twilight tries her best, but is easily beaten by the more athletic Rainbow Dash. After the match, Rainbow Dash agrees to help anyway, saying she just wanted to see how serious Twilight was about challenging Sunset Shimmer: refusing to give up despite being hopelessly outmatched meant that she actually did have the determination needed and wouldn't just back down once things got tough.

** [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition 4th Edition]]: The Sable Lancers use this on potential recruits, often without their knowledge. The potential recruits are hired to carry a chest to a nearby town, with the stipulation that they not look inside it. Along the way they encounter several moral dilemmas, such as a woman whose child was carried off by goblins, two wagons crashing on a bridge, and an unconscious man in a ditch with a large sum of money on him. If the characters ignore the problems or fail to complete them satisfactorily, they fail. It goes without saying that if they look in the chest, they also fail.

** The LawfulGood[[invoked]] god of metallic (good) dragons Bahamut often disguises himself as an old man with canaries (which are really gold dragons), sometimes to [[OldBeggarTest test people]] (especially his followers). 4e even has rules for setting up such an encounter: namely, he would pretend to be a traveling old man asking for the [=PCs=] to escort him somewhere, at one point he would set up camp in a place where monsters/bandits etc are likely to attack. If they do attack and the [=PCs=] try to protect him, he secretly helps them with really powerful buffs and healing to make sure they don't die, and typically reveals his true nature and rewards them after they win. If they [[DirtyCoward just chicken out and leave him to die]], they fail and he just teleports away with no reward.
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The Guardians of the Veil (a sort of wizard intelligence agency) have a series of moral tests for prospective members. They are told to do a series of more and more morally questionable actions. In the final test they are asked to do something completely reprehensible. If they obey, they are refused membership and monitored from then on as a potential risk. If they refuse, they are granted membership. The Guardians don't want mindless drones; they want strong-willed individuals who will do what is right.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', all the Phoenix Kings of the High Elves of Ulthuan undergo one by stepping into a massive arcane pyre called the Flames of Asuryan, which are said to spare only those who are fated to be the true kings of Ulthuan. Long before the time of the setting, Malekith, the greatest warrior and sorcerer prince among the High Elves and would have been shoe-in for the second Phoenix King except he was really unpopular for his arrogance and for the harsh customs of his home kingdom of Nagarythe, was passed over for another war hero named Bel Shanaar. Morathi, Malekith's mother (also secretly a devotee of Slaanesh and evil as hell) went ballistic about her son not being chosen to be Phoenix King, so together they had Bel Shanaar murdered before the gathered nobles and tried to frame him as a Slaaneshi cultist. When that didn't work, Malekith tried to prove his claim by walking into the Flames. [[SarcasmMode Surprisingly]], Malekith was roasted horribly and he only barely survived the experience, and even thousands of years later [[WoundThatWillNotHeal his burn wounds persist]]. Malekith now lives on as the Witch King of the Dark Elves and vows to return to be the Phoenix King. Except in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes'' it turns out [[spoiler:that Malekith always was the rightful king of Ulthuan - the reason he failed the Flames was because [[GaveUpTooSoon he didn't endure the pain long enough, as his father Aenarion had done]]. So everything that happened as a result (becoming the Witch King, Naggaroth and everything else) was another overly elaborate test for him by the gods.]]

** In ''The Merchant of Venice'', Portia's deceased father leaves behind a test for her suitors. They are presented a room with three chests, each one made of gold, silver, or lead, and told that one of the three contains a painting of Portia; whoever finds that painting will win her hand. Choosing the expensive chests ends in failure -- the leaden chest is the correct option, as it shows that the suitor is not motivated by greed. In an interesting twist on the trope that [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows her brilliant mind]], Portia takes action when Bassanio, a man she actually likes, comes to try the test. She arranges a song which contains a clue to the answer ("Tell me, where is fancy bred? / In the heart, or in the head?", and so on) to play while Bassanio is the room with the chests -- after all, her father only said she [[ExactWords couldn't outright reveal the trick]], so hinting at it is perfectly OK.

** ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' has a meeting between Malcolm and the recently-defected Macduff. Malcolm acts the part of a CardCarryingVillain whose rule would be even worse than Macbeth's, after which Macduff bemoans Scotland's prospects and refuses to join his cause. Then Malcolm reveals the that he's far better than he presented himself as; he wanted to determine if Macduff can be trusted to have Scotland's best interests at heart.

* The entire plot of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' comes off as a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]]. [[spoiler:It all begins because Zak Gramarye, in an act he picked from his mentor Magnifi, liked to play poker with other people, not to see how they played, but to see how they acted. He happened to have an ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter with this method, as he quickly picks up that Kristoph Gavin is untrustworthy and was willing to cheat, whereas Phoenix Wright, while attempting to bluff his way out of things, played honestly. Thus, Zak Gramarye fires Kristoph on the spot after playing poker, and hires Phoenix after playing with him. However, since he never revealed the reason behind the poker game, Kristoph Gavin spent seven years thinking he missed the chance to defent a famous client because he lost at poker (while Phoenix won). This causes his descent into paranoia, engineering Phoenix's disbarment (with forged evidence he was planning to use by himself), intending to kill the person that made the forgery, and later killing Zak himself. By the time Kristoph discovers the reason behind him being fired, he's too insane to find reason in it.]]

** [[spoiler:Dr. Bowman]] pulls this on Florence by offering her a puppy from a cryo-frozen embryo to be the first of the second generation of her (genetically engineered) species. She declines, because the situation is chaotic and she doesn't want a puppy until she can offer it the stable home it deserves.

* In ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'', Nick chats on IRL with someone named "Pookel," while developing feelings for his coworker, Ki, unaware that the two are one and the same. Ki continues messaging him as Pookel until he breaks him off, as an apparent test of his loyalty, unaware that he's already figured out Pookel's identity. Unfortunately for Ki, she doesn't work up the nerve to tell him until Trudy maliciously gives Nick a clue to Pookel's identity. Nick angrily calls Ki out over the entire stunt, but ultimately forgives her.

--> '''Dr. Tunny:''' You were absolutely right in there: You ''are'' a bard. [hands her a gold coin with a Bard's insignia] This just makes it official. Well done, Ms. L'Vallis. Well done.

* An impromptu one occurs [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=193 here]] in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent''. Steve accidentally bumps into a waitress (Ellen), and knocks a couple beers she was carrying all over himself. After "jokingly" asking for her number by way of apology, Ellen just politely declines and says that Steve's and Marten's meals are on the house. Steve humbly accepts that. On the way out of the diner, the Ellen gives Steve her number, and says that if he had made a fuss, she wouldn't have given it to him. Steve is in shock.
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' parodies this in one comic, when a man tells his girlfriend that he's going to die soon, and wants her to take a pill that will convince her she never liked him, so that she won't be burdened by this loss. She initially refuses, but eventually she caves, at which point the man yells "Aha!". Cut to a bar scene, were the same man explains to a different woman that that's why his girlfriend failed the relationship test.

* ''Webcomic/SweetHome2017'': When Hyuk sent Hyun and Wook to get Dusik, Sook and Yeong, he whispered to Hyun to focus on Dusik, even at the price of the kids, to see if Hyun was the callous type of person who could sacrifice children.
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': In a prose side story detailing Lysa and Duane's first meeting its revealed that Lysa wore a glamor to give herself a cleft palette, lazy eye and other features not traditionally considered beautiful and went to meet him. Challenging him to answer questions about violence in his past, and when he answers truthfully and agrees to marry her she reveals the ruse as a further test saying she'd not have had him if he'd been shallow.

* In the ''Series/{{Lost}}'' AlternateRealityGame "Dharma Wants You", the player goes through several flash-based tests supposedly used to test his/her capacity to join a reinstated Dharma Initiative. At the beginning of the test series, head recruiter Hans Van Eeghen warns you about the attempts of someone known as "Black Swan" to "undermine the testing program". Each of the tests themselves have a secret "Black Swan" option allowing the player to cheat. The final test (called the "Honesty and Integrity Test") is a simple video informing the candidates that they already completed the test: Eeghen himself is Black Swan and the cheats were used to test the candidates' integrity. Eeghen then congratulates those who didn't cheat, claiming "the officials reviewing your results will look very favourably on this outcome".

* In ''[[http://www.rinkworks.com/peasoup/blind.shtml This]]'' "Pea Soup For The Cynic's Soul" story is about Brent Smith, a soldier in the Persian Gulf War who's matched with a pen pal named Julie Farmington, whom he's never met before. After the war ends, Brent's set to meet Julie in an airport, with only a single clue to her appearance -- a white carnation -- since Julie doesn't know if he's only interested in her looks, or because he doesn't have anyone else. He sees an unattractive woman with the carnation, and asks her out on a date, at which point the woman shows him to the ''real'' Julie, who apologizes for the deception. Brent isn't put out, but he's disappointed that she's apparently even uglier than the woman she had pose as her, and cuts ties with her.

* The Orion's Arm short story ''[[http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-story&story=dr_yes_jolonah Yes, Jolonah, there is a Hell]]'' features a murderer who is about to be given to the [[EldritchAbomination Queen of Pain]]. First, he is given several chances to earn a quick death, but rejects it. Then, he is told a baby can take his place in the Hell. He jumps on the chance, but naturally, that was the trope. The point, BTW, isn't that the Queen has mercy or has conscience. She merely has no use for anyone but the worst.

*** In other words, the best NCO candidate has enough sense to make sure he or she has correctly received an order (especially when it makes no sense), and having ''confirmed'' that it is a valid, legal order and it has been received correctly, sets about to its immediate execution without complaint or hesitation. It doesn't have to make sense; it's legal, it has been correctly received, so salute and execute.
* Some teachers use a simple test to see if the students can follow instructions: At the top of the paper, you are told to read the entire test, and then perform the tasks. The tasks can include anything from simple math, to standing on one foot while singing the national anthem. The trick is of course that one of the last instructions on the page is "Ignore all the other tasks. All you need to do to pass is to write your name at the bottom of the paper." Most students will start carrying out the instructions before reading all of them, and properly look like fools to the few who actually remember what the test was about: following instructions.
* There is a psych-class test like this. In the middle of class a person dressed in a ski-mask and all black clothing steals the professor's notes and runs out. Then the professor asks the class to describe the attacker. In order to pass you have to prove you can overcome preexisting social assumptions by not assuming the attacker is (among other things) male.

* Apparently, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler did this when a foreign merchant reported that he'd been robbed of a bag of gold while traveling through Vlad's kingdom. Vlad asked him how many gold pieces he had lost, then told the merchant he would send for him if found the gold. A few days later, the merchant was called to the castle and Vlad handed him a bag of gold. Opening it up, he counted the gold pieces and then handed it back to Vlad, saying the gold wasn't his because there was one more gold piece in the bag than what he had lost. Vlad told him to take the gold, because it was just a test of his honesty and the merchant passed. ''Vlad also made it very clear what would have happened if the merchant had not admitted that the gold was not his.''

* An old Jewish story tells of Reb Eisele Charif challenging all the young yeshiva students with a difficult Talmudic question, declaring that the one who answered correctly [[EngagementChallenge could marry his daughter]]. No one came up with a correct answer, so he packed up and left. However, on the outskirts of town he noticed he was being chased by one young scholar, who admitted that despite failing the challenge he still wanted to know the answer to the question. Whether or not this was Reb Eisele's original intention, he decided that someone so dedicated to knowledge should be the one to marry his daughter.

* Another one was used by a Jane Elliot to explain racism to a class. In the "brown eye/blue eye experiment" in she told her class that one group of people with a specific eye color was superior to the other and she was shocked about how quickly the children started believing it and even came up with their own slurs.

* An executive takes a prospective employee to lunch at a restaurant. If he puts salt on the food before tasting it, he's clearly someone who jumps to conclusions without investigating the situation and is unfit for the position. [[SarcasmMode Because it's impossible that he's eaten there before and knows how they cook the food.]] This story is often associated with Thomas Watson of IBM or United States Admiral Hiram Rickover, the father of the "Nuclear Navy", both of whom were hiring people for technically-demanding, detail-oriented work.

* The ''Freakonomics'' authors discuss a beautiful example of this. They designed an algorithm that looked at terrorists' bank habits and gave it to the government of the United Kingdom. The algorithm was very effective at turning in suspected activity, with a very low chance of flagging an innocent person and a very high chance of snagging a terrorist (in statistics, a sensitivity and high specificity - see note). However, because the innocent so greatly outnumber the guilty, many innocent people still wound up on a list thanks to the algorithm (in statistics, there was a low positive predictive value - see note). So the authors and the government went to press to discuss their project and revealed one of the algorithm's most powerful predictors: terrorists are young enough with enough family to justify life insurance, but they don't buy it (as it wouldn't pay off if they died in an attack). Naturally, the press was outraged that this secret would be revealed. The foolish Americans were excoriated by the British media - "How dumb are those Yanks? And how dumb is our government?" Despite the guffawing, the now in-place algorithm was watching that list of suspects to see who suddenly ran out to buy insurance... [[note]]In statistics, sensitivity is the percentage of people who actually have the condition you are interested in that your test identifies correctly. Specificity is the percentage of people who your test correctly identifies as not having the condition of interest. As an exercise, let's say that the test is an algorithm designed to ID terrorists. It has 99.5% sensitivity and 99.5% specificity. Wow! Near perfect, right? Surely you can take the answer the algorithm gives you to the bank? Well, not so fast. Imagine you have a country like the UK, with a population of about 50 million. Your intelligence agencies, collaborating with your allies, estimate you have about 500 possible terrorists to find. With sensitivity 99.5% and specificity 99.5%, an algorithm would positively identify about 497 of the 500 terrorists. That's very helpful. Unfortunately, with a population of 50 million innocent people, your algorithm correctly weeds out "only" 99.5% of them. That means 0.005% of 50,000,000 people are incorrectly flagged as terrorists -- or 250,000. Your positive predictive value - the odds a person the algorithm has flagged is actually a terrorist -- is 497.5/250,497.5, or about 0.2%. For every 500 investigations you launch, you might investigate zero-to-three actual terrorists. Clearly an algorithm which ID'd terrorists with a sensitivity and specificity of 99.5% would not be nearly good enough for a situation like what the UK was facing. The UK's algorithm was apparently good enough to keep using, and even to keep refining with the nasty little secret test discussed above.[[/note]]

* The demonstrators of the laser exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre occasionally like to spring one on the guests. The centerpiece is a giant chemical laser which can be filled with many different types of gases, leading to lasers with different colors and properties. When the demonstrator fills the tube with carbon dioxide, they will ask if anyone can see the laser beam. There will always be one or two people who claim they can. The demonstrator then informs them that a [=CO2=] laser is infrared, so only lizards would be able to see it.
* One common test given to someone cleaning a house or other building is to simply hide a bit of money under a rug or similar fixture. The rationale goes something like this: if the money is still there after they perform their service, then they're sloppy. If the money isn't there, but isn't returned to the person who hired them, then they're untrustworthy. But if the money is found and returned, then they're honest and reliable.

* The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles has an exhibit at the beginning before people enter where they show a video with a long list about groups people are prejudiced against, starting with common targets (such as other races or LGBT people) and going on to more obscure targets. At the end the visitors are invited to enter through one of two doors, one marked "prejudiced" and one marked "unprejudiced". [[spoiler:the "unprejudiced" door is locked, in order to show no one is without prejudice. That said, some people [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint still bang on the locked door and demand to be let through.]]]]

--> "(Henry VIII and his men), being disguised with mottled cloaks with hoods so that they should not be recognized, came secretly to Rochester, and so went up into the chamber where the said Lady Anne was looking out of a window to see the bull-baiting which was going on in the courtyard, and suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed here a token which the king had sent her for New Year’s gift, and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her. But she regarded him little, but always looked out the window... and when the king saw that she took so little notice of his coming he went into another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of purple velvet."

** The 1978 book ''Airport International'' by Brian Moynahan says this was [[BewareTheHonestOnes the other way around]]; 70s baggage handlers at Heathrow were ''extremely'' bent. If the newbie turned in the envelope, he'd end up working hard jobs and crappy shifts. It's possible one side - or both - heard the story and remembered it wrong.