History Main / FidelityTest

-->-- '''The Female Highwayman'''

* A (possibly) unintentional example in Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''[[Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections False Mirrors]]'', Leonid's marriage is on the rocks. Meanwhile, he assembles a group of former Divers and hackers and goes into a virtual game to try to find the entrance to the Diver Temple. Along the way, they pick up a female player named Nike. During the journey, Leonid tells Nike he likes her. After the adventure, he takes off his VR helmet to find out that Nike was his wife Vicka in disguise. Realizes he should have guessed Nike's identity, since Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, whose Roman counterpart is Victoria. He fears the consequences of telling Nike he liked her, but his wife is surprisingly understanding, and he realizes that Nike was merely a projection Vicka's self-image, so, really, he was attracted to the same qualities that made him fall in love with Vicka in the first place. CoitusEnsues. It also probably helps that she has a degree in psychology.

* During the [[http://community.livejournal.com/jla_watchtower/tag/olympics Olympics Plot]] of [[http://community.livejournal.com/jla_watchtower Jla Watchtower]][=/=]Roleplay/DCNation, Roy Harper challenged the Greek Gods for a chance to resurrect Donna Troy. As ''part'' of the test, Aphrodite demanded he remain celibate from the time of the challenge until the actual games. For an Arrow, that was ''already'' easier said then done. And then, Aphrodite casts a spell that makes women fall head over heels in lust for him (with only Lian immune), leading to a memorable line out of Ollie...

[[folder:Fanfic]]

--> '''Green Arrow I:''' He's not exaggerating, Connor. I watched him do a bad Chippendale's impression, and Dinah was getting excited. Something's off here. Go, teach him how to ignore women's come-ons. * mutters* [[ChasteHero Lord knows you're the only one here who can manage it]].

[[folder:Film]]

* In the remake of ''Film/TheThomasCrownAffair1999'', Thomas deliberately makes it appear as though he's having a relationship on the side in order to try to find out if Catherine is just after the painting or not.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', Mother Gothel proposes that Rapunzel put Flynn to this by giving him the tiara that was the price of guiding her. [[spoiler:Rapunzel chickens out, but later does it. Mother Gothel instantly puts her plan into action and makes it convincingly look like he failed it.]]
* In ''Film/RuleOfThree'' (1996), Roger meets and marries Sam, then becomes concerned about her fidelity and asks his best friend Roger to try and seduce her so that her true love can be proven.
* In ''Film/KissingAFool'', committment-phobic Chicago sportscaster Max Abbit (David Schwimmer) thinks he's finally found the girl of his dreams in cerebral book editor Samantha (Mili Avital), after Max's best friend, novelist Jay (Jason Lee), fixes them up. But Max, haunted by doubts about his fiancee's fidelity, enlists Jay to test her loyalty by trying to seduce her.
* In ''Film/TheFidelityTest'', Franziska’s job is to act as bait for potentially unfaithful men. Once engaged by a suspicious wife, Franziska presents herself to the husband as an easy conquest until her assistant Alfonso is able to document the infidelity with a camera. So far, she’s never failed…
* In ''Film/TheTest2012'' the protagonist hires a rich and handsome actor to hit on his fiance, to prove that she truly loves him and she's not after his money.

* The novel ''Literature/DonQuixote'' has several smaller novels inside of itself, one of this "The Impertinent Curious", a married man decides to put to test his wife's loyalty through his friend, all goes well until his friend happens to fall in love with his wife and runs off with her after performing a perfectly executed theater making the man believe his wife is faithful. The man eventually commits suicide when he finds out that he was the one responsible all along.

* A (possibly) unintentional example in Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''[[Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections False Mirrors]]'', Leonid's marriage is on the rocks. Meanwhile, he assembles a group of former Divers and hackers and goes into a virtual game to try to find the entrance to the Diver Temple. Along the way, they pick up a female player named Nike. During the journey, Leonid tells Nike he likes her. After the adventure, he takes off his VR helmet to find out that Nike was his wife Vicka in disguise. Realizes he should have guessed Nike's identity, since Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, whose Roman counterpart is Victoria. He fears the consequences of telling Nike he liked her, but his wife is surprisingly understanding, and he realizes that Nike was merely a projection Vicka's self-image, so, really, he was attracted to the same qualities that made him fall in love with Vicka in the first place. CoitusEnsues. It also probably helps that she has a degree in psychology.

* In the ''Series/SilkStalkings'' episode "Red Flag", a company sends out attractive women to test the fidelity of men engaged to be married. They're usually hired by the families of the women to make sure the guy won't cheat on her after they're married.
* In an episode of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', August put tape over her nose and pretended it had been bitten off in order to test if Tommy would stay with her even without her looks.

* The reality TV series ''Series/{{Cheaters}}'' runs on this trope, with men and women who believe their partners are unfaithful setting up scenarios where they can test their partners fidelity.

* Most daytime talk shows (like ''Series/{{Maury}}'') will use this one on men suspected of cheating. The man will be put in the waiting room with a decoy who pretends to be another guest and comes onto the man, to see how he reacts. [[GenreBlind 99 times out of 100,]] [[TooDumbToLive the man will go for it]], which gives the perfect opportunity for his girlfriend[=/=]wife (or the host) to throw it in his face when he says "I would never cheat on you!" The real comedy gold comes when the man attempts to defend himself, though most of the time they simply get mad about being set up.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': Veronica is hired by a neurotic girlfriend to test her boyfriend's commitment to her before he can propose, which involves setting up a "temptation scenario" that ends up starring [[FilleFatale Veronica herself]]. (We see Veronica has a regular subcontractor for this work, so it presumably comes up more often offscreen.)
* In one episode of ''Series/HettyWainthroppInvestigates'', while Hetty was busy with a case, Robert and Geoffrey decided to handle another case on their own, in which a man hired them to perform a fidelity test on his girlfriend. However, since Robert was too old and Geoffrey was too young, they hired someone else to do it. [[spoiler:She fell for it, and what's more, the man they hired [[BecomingTheMask became the mask]]. The client was angry at Robert and Geoffrey about this, so he refused to pay them.]]
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', when Darrin was on a business trip with an attractive secretary, Endora attempted to prove to Samantha that her husband was planning to have an affair by granting him ThreeWishes without his knowledge. When circumstances resulted in his return flight being delayed by a freak snowstorm, Samantha reluctantly believed that he wished for the storm and was planning on leaving Darrin when he came back. After learning about Endora's scheme, he used the three wishes to force Endora to fess up and to stop meddling in his and Sam's life for a week, thus proving his fidelity and restoring Sam's trust.

* Female example: the song "Sovay", which provides the page quote, in which a woman tests her lover by dressing as a [[TheHighwayman highwayman]] and attempting to rob him of the ring she gave him, only revealing her identity when he refuses under threat of death. In the last lines she admits she'd have shot the man if he gave up the ring.
* OlderThanFeudalism: In the Biblical [[Literature/TheBible Book of Numbers]] 5:11-31, there is a test for a woman suspected of infidelity, to prevent her jealous husband from going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge without proof and/or from [[NiceJobBreakingItHero having her executed when it wasn't adultery but a big misunderstanding]]. The woman was taken to the Temple, and her head covering was removed while some grain was offered at the altar. Meanwhile, the priest wrote a curse on a piece of paper, and sprinkled dust from the floor into a container of water. If the woman was faithful, not only would the cursed water would have no effect on her, but her husband would be obligated to impregnate her. If, however, she was cheating, she would become infertile/barren; among Israelite women barrenness was extremely shameful even without the stigma of adultery attached to it.
* In the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'', Sita has been kidnapped and held hostage by Ravana, though she refused his sexual advances. Rama has her walk over fire to purify her...and rather than burning her, the fire does not so much as singe her, proving that she was, in fact, faithful to him. (Some versions have the flames turning into flowers as she walks over them.)

* An Indonesian folk lore of Banyuwangi (means Sweet-smelling Water) River. Ida Ayu Surati was a princess escaped from destroyed kingdom, but was saved by and then married the prince who raided her kingdom, Raden Banterang. One day, Ida Ayu Surati met a beggar, who then she recognized as her brother Agung Bagus Mantra. Agung asked his sister to kill her husband for destroying their kingdom, but Ida who grew to love him, refused. Agung then spread a lie about Ida's infidelity, and Banterang who heard it became angry. When confronted by her husband, Ida prophesied that her innocence would be proved by the river's water condition. Already in his wit's end, Banterang stabbed Ida and threw her corpse into the dirty river, which then turned fragrant and clean. One of the examples where the innocent wife ''dies'' in the test.

* In ''Theatre/{{Cymbeline}}'' by Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Posthumus makes a wager with Iachimo that his wife Imogen will be true to him. Iachimo fails to seduce her, but claims otherwise.

* In ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', Portia and her servant test the fidelity of their newly-acquired husbands by demanding their wedding rings after saving the life of their friend, Antonio (it's complicated--there's [[WholesomeCrossdresser drag involved]]). The men do fail the test, and the wives lord it over them for the rest of the play, but forgive them, content that they've learned their lesson. Whether Bassanio giving up his wife’s ring to a handsome young lawyer is meant to have sexual subtext is open to interpretation, but given the sheer volume of HoYay in the play and the fact that giving someone a ring was one of many symbols that the dirty-minded Elizabethans associated with sex…

* Europe 2, a Czech commercial radio station, used to have a segment called "Fidelity Test" as a part of their morning show in the Naughties. Usually, it never went well for those who ordered it. The radio hosts were asked to call their significant others and try to seduce them, usually just asking for a date. In vast majority of cases, the men (and mostly they were men) agreed to go. If they were in fact committed to the relationship, they got furious for lack of trust or for being suspected or being tested. There were many immediate break-ups. When the show got more known, some call-ees proved genre-savyy and refused to go, but admitted they knew what was happening -- and got pissed off anyway.

* Late in the game of ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', the party arrives at a town with a dungeon tower that houses the Mirror of Truth, a famous mirror in the area that couples go to confirm each other's fidelity. The mirror reflects the image of the faithful lover while it fails to reflect the image of a cheater.[[spoiler: Iris, secretly a conflicted antagonist of the Big Bad's group, tests/prods the hero Maxim and his wife Selan to venture to the Mirror of Truth after implying that the couple's trust in each other is weak (and the rest of the party accidently alluding the possibility that Maxim might had a fling with Iris didn't help) thus causing the latter to demand to test their faithfulness in the mirror. Ultimately, just prior to entering the mirror room Maxim wins Selan over again saying he would would trust each others' faithfulness even if the mirror indicated otherwise. Soon after they enter the room, a swarm of monsters come to attack the party, pushing them deeper into the room with their backs facing the mirror. The mirror reflects both their backsides as the battle commences, but the mirror is destroyed in the process of the fight so they never actually determine what the mirror says about them.]]

* In the 80s show ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms'', Jerrica is constantly worried about the fact that her boyfriend Rio is two-timing her with her holographic persona Jem. In one episode, she decides to test him by creating a ''third'' (holographic) persona - whom he instantly falls in love with. This proves to her [[BrokenAesop that it's really her that he's loved the whole time.]]
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' sees the men of the Figgis Agency hired to seduce the wife of a producer, not realizing that the women of the agency have been hired by the wife to seduce the producer.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Choosy Wives Choose Smith", Francine's hunky ex-boyfriend visits Langley Falls and Stan, feeling inadequate, is convinced by Roger to test whether she still carried a torch for him. So he and Roger fly out to a CIA vacation spot in the Pacific, making it look like they were lost at sea...only for them to get stranded for real when a tsunami strikes the island. When they finally make it home, Francine reveals that she knew it was a test all along (thanks to Stan's IncrediblyObviousBug) and was stringing her ex along just to mess with Stan[[note]]He does confess, but explains about the tsunami and how it meant he didn't see any of the camera footage[[/note]]. The ex angrily storms off after declaring that Stan and Francine are perfect for each other because they're both assholes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Fred and Barney sneak from their wives to have a night's fun. However Wilma and Betty figure this out and disguise themselves to join them at the night club, then they attempt to hit on them but Fred and Barney treat them like {{Abhorrent Admirer}}s running away from them not realizing their true identities.

* Music/KateBush's "Babooshka":
-->She wanted to test her husband.
-->She knew exactly what to do:
-->A pseudonym to fool him.
-->She couldn't have made a worse move.

* In ''Film/MyGeisha'', Shirley Maclaine is an actress who tests her husband's fidelity by disguising herself as a Geisha (using hair dye and contact lenses (hey, it was 1962, and the film audience had rarely seen an actual Japanese actress). She acts in a movie as the Geisha, and her husband only tumbles to her identity when watching the rushes in reverse color. He then shows an interest in her alter ego, who of course gives him the brush-off. At the end he quotes the Geisha's line about about being "sympathy", or genuinely interested in a man. So the wife knows he knows, and there is a happy ending. Query: shouldn't he has be able to see she resembled his wife in other ways?

* In ''Literature/ForLoveOfEvil'', when Parry is about to marry the lovely Jolie, a jealous suitor has a unicorn approach, hoping to prove that Jolie is not a virgin. Even her father is totally stunned when the unicorn allows Jolie to stroke it, proving her a virgin.

* ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' has an episode where Rob wants to know how Laura would react to another man's advances. He calls her on the telephone using a fake accent, and is dismayed that she begins to flirt back. It should be noted that Laura knows right away that it's Rob on the phone.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In the Biblical [[Literature/TheBible Book of Numbers]] 5:11-31, there is a test for a woman suspected of infidelity, to prevent her jealous husband from going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge without proof and/or from [[NiceJobBreakingItHero having her executed when it wasn't adultery but a big misunderstanding]]. The woman was taken to the Temple, and her head covering was removed while some grain was offered at the altar. Meanwhile, the priest wrote a curse on a piece of paper, and sprinkled dust from the floor into a container of water. If the woman was faithful, not only would the cursed water would have no effect on her, but her husband would be obligated to impregnate her. If, however, she was cheating, she would become infertile/barren; it should be noted that among Israelite women barreness was extremely shameful even without the stigma of adultery attached to it.

* An Indonesian folk lore of Banyuwangi (literally means Sweet-smelling Water) River. Ida Ayu Surati was a princess escaped from destroyed kingdom, but was saved by and then married the prince who raided her kingdom, Raden Banterang. One day, Ida Ayu Surati met a beggar, who then she recognized as her brother Agung Bagus Mantra. Agung asked his sister to kill her husband for destroying their kingdom, but Ida who grew to love him, refused. Agung then spread a lie about Ida's infidelity, and Banterang who heard it became angry. When confronted by her husband, Ida prophesied that her innocence would be proved by the river's water condition. Already in his wit's end, Banterang stabbed Ida and threw her corpse into the dirty river, which then turned fragrant and clean. One of the examples where the innocent wife ''dies'' in the test.

* There's many Medieval legends that attribute amazing inventions to Creator/{{Virgil}}. One is a statue with a working jaw. The women of the city ([[DoubleStandard and the women only!]]) are made to put their hand within the mouth and declare they've been faithful to their husbands. If they tell the truth, all is well. If they lie, their fingers get bitten off. Most women of the city bear this mark of shame. There's no stories of anyone just admitting to cheating to at least keep their fingers, but there is a story of one woman who outsmarted Virgil. She instructed her lover to attend the proceedings and feign sudden madness. He was to run around and grab her and not let ago until the crowd would free her. He did and she placed her hand in the statue's mouth afterwards, declaring that she'd not been in the embrace of anyone but her husband and of course that guy everyone witnessed just now. The statue let her keep her fingers.

* [=YouTube=] "song lyric" pranks function as this: a person texts lyrics lines from an amorous popular song (such as Music/TaylorSwift's "You Belong with Me" or Music/ArianaGrande's "Into You") to their partner's best friend (with the partner witnessing) or their best friend's partner (with the best friend witnessing) to gauge the target's reaction; of course, the test only works if the person being texted a) is unfamiliar with the lyrics and b) hasn't been tipped off about the prank.