A Cross-Nations, Cross-Cultures, and Cross-Conditions Analysis on the Equivalence of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding

Abstract

This article examines measurement equivalence of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) across two nations (the United States and Singapore), two cultural values (horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism) and two motivational conditions (standard and faking). One sample of undergraduate students from each country ( N Singapore = 158, N United States = 166) participated in this study, and a within-subject experimental design is used. Specifically, at Time 1, participants were simply asked to respond to the BIDR and the INDCOL (standard condition). At Time 2, the participants were instructed to engage in social desirability (faking condition). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses are used to evaluate the equivalence of the BIDR. The authors found support for the equivalence of the BIDR across the two cultural values. However, there is weaker support for the equivalence of the BIDR across the two countries and the two motivational conditions. The implications of these findings are discussed.