# Was this "psychological test" ever administered by the FBI?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 8, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216 "2003-10-08T03:41:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216/1 "2003-10-08T03:41:59Z")

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## From an email that went around work today:

This is an authentic one question psychological test.

It is a story about a girl. While at the funeral of her mother, she met a  
man whom she did not know. She thought he was amazing, her dream guy and  
she fell in love with him but he left the graveside before she could ask  
for his number and she could not find him after the funeral.

A week later the girl killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?  
Give this some thought before you scroll down for the correct answer.

Answer:

She was hoping the guy would appear at the sister’s funeral.

If you answered this correctly, you think like a true psychopath.This was a  
test famous FBI profilers have used to test if one has the same mentality  
as a killer. Many convicted serial killers from Charles Manson to Ted Bundy  
took this test and answered it correctly.

* * *

Only myself and one other girl got this right. She found it extremely creepy but I think it might be a load of hooey. Any evidence if this was ever actually used by the FBI?

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216/2 "2003-10-08T03:53:50Z")

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False says [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/sister.htm).

Haj

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**Author:** ![pion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@pion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pion)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216/3 "2003-10-08T06:39:56Z")

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Seems like the answer is pretty obvious to me. I mean, she could have killed her sister for any number of reasons, but if that were so why would they preface it with the story about mysterious funeral man? I would have thought that they wouldn’t let anyone in the FBI who _couldn’t_ figure that out 🙂

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-psychological-test-ever-administered-by-the-fbi/206216/4 "2003-10-08T08:11:34Z")

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Nope. Speaking as a psychologist. Wouldn’t tell you anything. It’s more like a riddle than anything else. Same for the “you’re alone in a white room…” kinds of “tests.” It might be interesting, but it’s not a screening instrument.