Self-deceptive Enhancement Research Articles

Vividness of visual imagery and social desirable responding: correlations of the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire with the balanced inventory of desirable responding and the Marlowe–Crowne scale

Correlational research investigating the relationship between scores on self-report imagery questionnaires and measures of social desirable responding has shown only a weak association. However, researchers have argued that this research may have underestimated the size of the relationship because it relied primarily on the Marlowe-Crowne scale (MC; Crowne & Marlowe, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349-354, 1960), which loads primarily on the least relevant form of social desirable responding for this particular context, the moralistic bias. Here we report the analysis of data correlating the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, Journal of Mental Imagery, 19, 153-166, 1973) with the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 2002) and the MC scale under anonymous testing conditions. The VVIQ correlated significantly with the Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) and Agency Management (AM) BIDR subscales and with the MC. The largest correlation was with SDE. The ability of SDE to predict VVIQ scores was not significantly enhanced by adding either AM or MC. Correlations between the VVIQ and BIDR egoistic scales were larger when the BIDR was continuously rather than dichotomously scored. This analysis indicates that the relationship between self-reported imagery and social desirable responding is likely to be stronger than previously thought.

The residual effect of feigning: How intentional faking may evolve into a less conscious form of symptom reporting

We conducted three studies that address the residual effects of instructed feigning of symptoms. In Experiment 1 (N = 31), undergraduates instructed to exaggerate symptoms on a malingering test continued to report more neurocognitive and psychiatric symptoms than did nonmalingering controls, when later asked to respond honestly to the same test. In Experiment 2 (N = 28), students completed a symptom list of psychiatric complaints and then were asked to explain why they had endorsed two target symptoms that they did not, in actuality, endorse. A total of 57% of participants did not detect this mismatch between actual and manipulated symptom endorsement and even tended to adopt the manipulated symptoms when provided with an opportunity to do so. In Experiment 3 (N = 28), we found that self-deceptive enhancement is related to the tendency to continue to report neurocognitive and psychiatric symptoms that initially had been produced intentionally. “Blindness” for the intentional aspect of symptom endorsement may explain the intrinsic overlap between feigning and somatoform complaints.

Truth, lies or self-deception? Striatal D 2/3 receptor availability predicts individual differences in social conformity

Previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies have consistently shown a negative association between striatal D 2/3 receptor availability and socially desirable responding (SDR). However, as SDR is a complex personality trait, the functional significance of this relationship is unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the relationship between D 2/3 receptor availability and SDR reflects a tendency to present oneself positively to others, consistent with social conformity (impression management, IM), or the tendency to view one's own behavior positively (self-deceptive enhancement, SDE). Striatal D 2/3 receptor availability was assessed in 23 healthy volunteers using [ 11C]raclopride PET. SDR was assessed using the Lie scale of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and IM and SDE were measured using the Paulhus Deception Scales. Analysis of personality variables revealed a positive relationship between Lie and log IM ( r = 0.64, p = 0.01) but not Lie and SDE ( r = −0.36, ns). Consistent with previous findings, Lie was negatively associated with D 2/3 receptor availability in the sensorimotor striatum ( r = − 0.55, p = 0.05), and a similar trend–level relationship was observed for log IM ( r = −0.54 p = 0.06) but not SDE ( r = 0.23, ns). Whilst these associations are modest, results suggest that striatal D 2/3 receptor availability may be particularly associated with social conformity, rather than self-deception.

Life History strategy and Evaluative Self-Assessment

Life History (LH) theory describes the existence of individual differences in the optimal allocation of inherently limited bioenergetic and material resources towards different types of reproductive-enhancing activities. LH theory predicts that slow LH (“High- K”) individuals are biased toward allocating resources toward enhancing the phenotypic quality (e.g., physical and mental health) of oneself and one’s offspring. Sociometer theory suggests that self-esteem tracks an individual’s level of social acceptance and inclusion. We examined the hypothesis that slow LH strategy positively predicts a more positive Evaluative Self-Assessment due to enhanced phenotypic quality. Participants completed questionnaires measuring their Life History (LH) strategies and a variety of measures of Self-Assessment (perceived mate value, perceived mating success, social economic exchange, positive and negative adjectives, global self-esteem, and collective self-esteem). An Exploratory Factor Analysis indicated that the measures of Evaluative Self-Assessment were best represented as a single latent factor. Slow LH strategy correlated moderately and positively with this Evaluative Self-Assessment factor. This relationship was not accounted for by socially desirable responding (self-deceptive enhancement or impression-management), sex, or age of participants. Consistent with Sociometer theory, we suggest that slow LH strategists exhibit high perceived self-worth due to increased social prestige and, relatedly, enhanced phenotypic quality.

The effects of social desirability response bias on STAXI‐2 profiles in a clinical forensic sample

This study investigated the proposition that the 'State-trait anger expression inventory' (2nd ed.; STAXI-2) is susceptible to impression management (IM) and Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) in clinical forensic populations. It was hypothesized that individuals engaging in IM would report significantly lower levels of trait anger, external expression of anger, and internal expression of anger on the STAXI-2. Those reporting above average SDE were predicted to claim higher levels of anger control. A between-groups design was used, comparing STAXI-2 scores of individuals who reported high levels of IM and SDE to those who did not. One-hundred and fifty-nine male patients of a community forensic mental health service, referred for assessment of stalking behaviours, completed the STAXI-2 and Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS). Individuals engaging in high levels of IM and SDE were compared to low scorers in regard to STAXI-2 scales using Mann-Whitney U tests. Individuals engaging in IM had significantly lower levels of reported trait anger, outward expression of anger, and inward expression of anger, and higher levels of anger control. Similar results were found with the SDE scale, although the magnitude of the effect was smaller and not apparent on all subscales. The STAXI-2 was vulnerable to social desirability response bias in this sample of forensic clients. Where the STAXI-2 is used as a basis for treatment recommendations and decisions, it should be administered and interpreted in conjunction with a recognized measure of such bias to improve validity.

Motivated response styles: The role of cultural values, regulatory focus, and self-consciousness in socially desirable responding.

Three studies investigated the relations between cultural values and socially desirable responding, the processes that underlie them, and factors that influence the strength of the relations. Results indicated that individualism was associated with self-deceptive enhancement but not impression management, whereas collectivism was associated with impression management but not self-deceptive enhancement. Regulatory focus was found to mediate these relations. A promotion focus mediated the relation between individualism and self-deceptive enhancement, whereas a prevention focus mediated the relation between collectivism and impression management. This mediation pattern held regardless of whether individualism and collectivism were determined at the group level (Study 1) or measured at the individual level (Studies 2-3), whether socially desirable responding was operationalized as a scale measure (Studies 1-3) or as reactions to behavioral scenarios (Study 2), and across different measures of regulatory focus. This general mediation pattern was found to be moderated by type of self-consciousness (Study 3): The promotion focus mediation was stronger for participants low (vs. high) in private self-consciousness, and the prevention focus mediation was stronger for participants high (vs. low) in public self-consciousness.

The Impact of Social Desirability Biases on Self-Report Among College Student and Problem Gamblers

The impacts of two types of social desirability bias, self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM), were examined on self-reports of gambling problems, measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and recent gambling behavior, as measured by the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method, in a sample of college students (N = 191), and a sample of treatment-seeking problem gamblers (N = 49). Consistent with our expectations, IM was negatively associated with SOGS scores in both samples. IM was most highly correlated with SOGS scores among treatment-seeking participants (r = -.44, p < .01). Substantial numbers of participants in both samples had high enough IM scores as to call into question the validity of their self-report gambling data, according to published interpretive guidelines. With respect to SDE, we had predicted that it would be positively related to gambling behaviors and gambling-related problems, but found that SDE was inversely related to SOGS scores in both samples. Very little evidence was found for social desirability effects on TLFB scores. Thus, preliminary evidence was obtained that self-report data on gambling problems, but not on gambling behavior (frequency of gambling and amount of time and money spent), may be susceptible to the effects of impression management in both college students and treatment-seeking gamblers.

Agentic and communal bias in socially desirable responding

This research was designed to investigate Paulhus' communion management (CM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), socially desirable responding (SDR) scales as measures of general SDR, communal bias and agentic bias. The CM and SDE scales, as well as the Schwartz values survey (SVS), were administered to four samples drawn from different cultures and subcultures (N = 900). Participants completed the questionnaires in ‘honest’ and ‘fake good’ conditions. Although conceptions of which values were desirable varied strongly between samples and instructional sets, the CM scale was consistently related to general SDR and to communal bias. In contrast, the SDE scale was only related to general SDR. Contrary to expectations, neither scale could identify participants who ‘faked good’ under normal instructions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The evolutionary role of self-deceptive enhancement as a protective factor against antisocial cognitions

This study investigates the relationship between self-deception and variables associated with antisociality in the general population (i.e., mating effort, antisocial thinking, psychopathy, and personality), seeking to provide an evolutionary explanation for how self-deception might influence antisocial thinking. The Mating Effort Scale (MES); an adjusted version of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS); the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP); the NEO-Five Factor Inventory-Revised (NEO-FFI-R), and the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS) were administered to 95 participants (33 males, 62 females, mean age = 36.4 years). Self-deceptive enhancement correlated significantly and negatively with Neuroticism ( r = −.30, p < 0.01), and positively with Openness ( r = .27, p < 0.05) and Conscientiousness ( r = .43, p < 0.01). Mating effort related primarily to the PICTS and self-reported psychopathy. Factor analysis of the scales produced two underlying components; ‘careless non-cooperation’ (defined by impulsive antisociality) and ‘careful cooperation’ (reflecting dutifulness, emotional stability, and social desirability). Our results suggest self-deceptive enhancement may be a protective factor against antisocial thinking and behaviour, and that this is impeded by high neuroticism and impulsive thinking.

The effects of response bias on self-reported quality of life among childhood cancer survivors

Several studies of long-term adjustment in childhood cancer survivors (CCS) report very positive outcomes, while other studies find significant adjustment problems. These inconsistencies have prompted some investigators to suggest survivors may be biased responders, prone to underreporting on self-report measures. This study tested the hypothesis that CCS are elevated on self-deception response bias (SDRB), and that SDRB is associated with higher ratings of quality-of-life (QOL). One hundred and seven adult (mean age = 31.85) survivors of childhood cancers completed a demographic questionnaire, Short Form-12 (SF-12), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), and Self-Deception Enhancement scale (SDE), an SDRB measure. Survivors' QOL scores were similar to normative groups, but they evidenced much higher levels of response bias. SDE scores were significantly correlated with the FACT-G, and SF-12 Mental Health (but not Physical Health) scores even after accounting for demographic and treatment-related variables. CCS show a biased response style, indicating a systematic tendency to deny difficulties on QOL measures. This may complicate QOL studies by inflating survivors' reports of their socio-emotional functioning. Understanding how response bias develops may help us learn more about cancer survivors' adaptation to illness, and the effects of the illness experience on their perceptions of QOL.

Internal and External Validity of Scores on the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding and the Paulhus Deception Scales

The internal and external validity of scores on the two-scale Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) and its recent revision, the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS), developed to measure two facets of social desirability, were studied with three groups of forensic clients and two groups of college undergraduates (total N = 519). The two scales were statistically significantly related in all groups and for both versions of the inventory. A two-factor congeneric, orthogonal measurement model was rejected for all groups. However, a two-factor model that allowed cross-loadings among the items and correlation between the factors provided adequate fit. Concurrent validity data showed scores on both the Impression Management and Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) scales to be satisfactory measures of their respective constructs and also of general social desirability, for both forensic clients and undergraduates. An exception was found in lower validity correlates for scores on the SDE scale in the PDS form.

The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR)

The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) is one of the most widely used social desirability scales. The authors conducted a reliability generalization study to examine the typical reliability coefficients of BIDR scores and explored factors that explained the variability of reliability estimates across studies. The results indicated that the overall BIDR scale produced scores that were adequately reliable. The mean score reliability estimates for the two subscales, Self-Deception Enhancement and Impression Management, were not satisfactory. In addition, although a number of study characteristics were statistically significantly related to reliability estimates, they accounted for only a small portion of the overall variability in reliability estimates. The results of these findings and their implications are also discussed.

Effects of Self‐Deceptive Enhancement on Personality–Job Performance Relationships

Theoretical and empirical evidence distinguishes between two types of response distortion: impression management (IM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), although most research in Industrial/Organizational Psychology has focused on the effects of IM. The present study compared the effects of IM and SDE on job performance and personality validity. Two‐hundred and sixty‐one managers completed Big Five Personality, SDE, and IM measures. The managers' supervisors, peers, and subordinates rated their job performance. In accordance with previous research, accounting for managers' IM scores did not increase prediction of job performance. On the other hand, accounting for SDE did increase prediction. Increased prediction was due to an interaction between Extraversion and SDE, and an increase in the predictive validity of Emotional Stability when SDE was held constant. Results suggested that findings from previous research demonstrating that IM does not affect job performance or personality validity cannot be extended to SDE.

Substance and Style in Socially Desirable Responding

The purpose of the present series of studies was to evaluate whether Paulhus's (1991) Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) and Communion Management (CM) socially desirable responding (SDR) scales should be interpreted as response set measures, response style measures, or measures of substantive individual differences in personality. In Study 1 (N=57) and Study 2 (N=62), army officer trainees were tested as applicants to their program and retested as incumbents 3 years later. Although participants generally responded to the situation by showing higher SDR scores in the applicant conditions, they also showed considerable rank-order stability across time. In Study 3 (N=70), self-reports on both SDR scales were corroborated by spouse reports, and, furthermore, SDE scores correlated with spouse reports of low Neuroticism and high Extraversion. Our data are interpreted as suggesting that both the CM and SDE scales are, in some varying amounts, measures of response set, response style, and substantive individual differences in personality. Implications of our findings for personality assessment and personnel selection are discussed.

Method effects due to social desirability as a parsimonious explanation of the deviation from unidimensionality in LOT-R scores

Dispositional optimism measured by the Life Orientation Test (Revised; LOT-R, Scheier et al., 1994) was originally proposed as a unidimensional construct pertaining to individual differences in positive outcome expectancies. However, factor analytic research has suggested two separate “optimism” and “pessimism” factors associated with positively and negatively worded items respectively. Using confirmatory factor analysis with data from N = 658 students it is shown that a general optimism model with method effects of the positively worded items fits even better than the “optimism–pessimism” model in terms of the AIC statistic, which accounts for both model parsimony and model fit. Furthermore, an attempt is made to explain the method effects by social desirability: impression management, one of two components of socially desirable responding, correlates significantly with the method factor whereas the other component, self-deceptive enhancement, is related to the general optimism factor. Thus it is shown that the deviation from unidimensionality of observed scores does not imply deviation from unidimensionality of optimism when method effects are incorporated in the model.

Self‐Liking and Self‐Competence Separate Self‐Evaluation From Self‐Deception: Associations With Personality, Ability, and Achievement

The similarities between measures of self-evaluation and self-deception are reviewed, and a method for discriminating between them is proposed, using personality profiles and relations to ability and achievement. Across two samples, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and Tafarodi's measures of self-evaluation were used to demonstrate that the RSES and Self-Liking are more similar to Self-Deceptive Enhancement than is self-competence. Further, Self-Competence is uniquely associated with cognitive ability and both academic and creative achievement. It is concluded that, along with self-liking, self-competence is a useful form of self-evaluation that should be measured and taken into account in research that has traditionally focused on self-esteem.

Positive Illusions: Positively Correlated with Subjective Well-Being, Negatively Correlated with a Measure of Personal Growth

Psychologists have long debated the benefits and costs of self-deceptive enhancement or positive illusions. Accurate perception of reality is central to the definitions of mental health proposed by many personality and clinical psychologists, but Taylor and Brown have suggested that having positive illusions is associated with increased happiness and satisfaction with life. One explanation for the conflicting assertions is that mental health, broadly defined, includes both subjective well-being and personal growth, distinguishable factors which are differentially related to positive illusions. For this study, 81 college students completed measures of positive illusions (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Self-deceptive Positivity and How I See Myself Questionnaire), subjective well-being (Satisfaction With Life Scale and Existential Anxiety Scale), and moral reasoning (Defining Issues Test) as an index of personal growth. As predicted, positive illusion composite scores were positively correlated with scores on the subjective well-being composite (r=.40) but negatively correlated with Defining Issues Test scores (r=-.25). The quadratic relationship between these measures of positive illusion and subjective well-being composites was not significant, indicating no support for an "optimal margin of illusion."

What is the relation between cultural orientation and socially desirable responding?

Research suggests that collectivists are more likely to engage in deception and socially desirable responding to maintain good relationships with others. In contrast, individualists are portrayed as candid and sincere because individualism encourages people to "be yourself." The authors propose that people with both types of cultural orientations or backgrounds engage in desirable responding, albeit in distinct ways. In Study 1, respondents from the United States compared with those from Singapore, and European Americans compared with Asian Americans, scored higher on self-deceptive enhancement (SDE)-the tendency to see oneself in a positive light and to give inflated assessment of one's skills and abilities- but lower on impression management (IM) by misrepresenting their self-reported actions to appear more normatively appropriate. In Studies 2 to 4, horizontal individualism as a cultural orientation correlated with SDE but not with IM, whereas horizontal collectivism correlated with IM but not with SDE. Further analyses examining (a) individual differences in the tendency to answer deceptively and (b) responses to behavioral scenarios shed additional light on the culturally relevant goals served by these distinct types of socially desirable responding.

Cognitive Ability and Self-Reported Efficacy of Self-Presentation Predict Faking on Personality Measures

Abstract. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether faking on personality measures is predicted by cognitive ability and self-reported efficacy of positive self-presentation (ESP) assessed under honest conditions. 123 participants completed the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM) scales of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Version 7 (BIDR) under four instructional sets: honest, fake bad, fake good, and two specifically formulated applicant instructions. In line with the assumption that personality measures lose their original meaning under the instruction to fake, it could be shown that the relationship between honest and faked NEO-FFI scales decreased with increasing situational pressure. In line with the hypothesis that faking reflects an ability, it could be demonstrated that general intelligence was related to the amount of faking, to the ability to perceive the situational requirements, and to the ability to fake in line with the situational requirements. In addition, self-reported ESP, but not SDE and IM, was positively related to positive self-presentation. Our findings imply that faking on personality measures should not only be seen as a threat to validity, but rather as a positive, adaptive, and probably predictive variable, which should be investigated in its own right.

Social desirability effects on computerized and paper-and-pencil questionnaires

Abstract The objectives of the present study were to determine the impact of computer administration of questionnaires on impression management (IM) and self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and on the disclosure of sensitive information such as alcohol use and risky sex. College students ( N = 301) completed several questionnaires in either a computer-administered or paper-and-pencil condition. Respondents who completed the survey on the computer scored significantly higher on SDE than those completing the survey on paper. No differences were found for IM. Respondents in the computer condition also reported a higher level of alcohol consumption and riskier sexual behaviors than those in the paper-and-pencil condition. It is possible that computer administration of surveys creates a social situation that produces a sense of disinhibition in respondents, and this sense of disinhibition may lead to greater reports of risky behaviors.