Characteristics of items in the Eysenck Personality Inventory which affect responses when students simulate.

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A large sample of students completed Form A of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and four subgroups were later asked to simulate extraversion, introversion, neuroticism or stability. It was found that subjects could simulate these four personalities successfully. The changes in individual item responses were correlated with the items' factor loadings, validity, response bias, and detectability. The different scales and types of item were considered separately. In some cases the changes in item responses when simulating introversion and extraversion were related to the extraversion validities and factor loadings of the items. More often, however, the behaviour of items under simulation was correlated with aspects of the items that made them more like an item from another scale and thus lessened their susceptibility to a particular type of simulation.