IT'S A TRAP! Faking and faking detection on conditional reasoning tests

Abstract

Conditional Reasoning Tests (CRTs) are indirect measures of personality that are resistant to faking under normal testing conditions. Recent research suggests individuals can be trained to distort their responses on CRTs. We expand in this domain in two ways. First, we develop faking detection items for two CRTs to extend the sole work attempting to detect response distortion on CRTs. Second, we explore how much information must be shared with participants regarding the underlying mechanisms of CRTs to allow them to successfully fake. We test our hypotheses across three studies with over 600 participants. Our results demonstrate that it is difficult (but not impossible) for individuals to distort their responses on CRTs in socially desirable ways. Simply telling participants what a CRT assesses is not sufficient information to allow them to fake good; a certain amount of training is required. Participants, however, can readily ‘fake bad’ on CRTs without training. Thus, CRTs are resistant to some forms of response distortion. Importantly, when individuals attempt to distort their responses in socially desirable ways, the included faking detection items identify these attempts even when efforts to distort are unsuccessful.