Does social desirability moderate the relationship between implicit and explicit anxiety measures?

Abstract

Abstract Explicit measures assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions and evaluations. In contrast, implicit measures assess introspectively inaccessible processes that operate outside of awareness. Consequently, implicit measures should be free of response factors such as faking tendencies and social desirability (SD). Usually, correlations between implicit and explicit measures of the same construct tend to be low. Study 1 (N=145) tested the hypothesis that SD should moderate the relationship between an implicit (the Implicit Association Test) and an explicit (a standard questionnaire) anxiety measure. Study 2 (N=62) extended this test by distinguishing between the SD components of self-deceptive enhancement and impression management. However, results of both studies suggest that SD does not act as a moderator between implicit and explicit anxiety measures. The discussion focuses on implications and limitations of this finding.