In the 1982 film 'Blade Runner', what is the name of the empathy test used to identify replicants?
Answer
Voight-Kampff test
Answer
Voight-Kampff test
In the 1982 film "Blade Runner," the empathy test used to identify replicants is the Voight-Kampff test.
The fictional test is administered by blade runners, specialized officers who track down illegal replicants. It uses emotionally disturbing questions—often involving animals, violence, or vulnerability—to provoke a subject's reactions. A polygraph-like machine measures physical responses such as respiration, heart rate, blushing, and eye movement.
The test is designed around the belief that replicants lack the same capacity for empathy as humans. In the film, Rick Deckard uses it on Leon Kowalski and on Rachael, whose implanted memories initially make her believe she is human. Rachael requires an unusually long examination before Deckard identifies her as a replicant.
The spelling is easy to confuse because Philip K. Dick's source novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," uses "Voigt-Kampff." The film and its associated terminology use "Voight-Kampff," with the extra h. It is also not the Turing test, which concerns whether a machine can imitate human conversation.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026