Socially Desirable Responding Research Articles

Development and validation of the SDR-O: A new measure of socially desirable responding in organizations

Organizational respondents often provide misleading or patently false information on job applications, personality tests, and other self-reports. Nevertheless, the degree to which socially desirable responding (SDR) threatens the validity of organizational self-reports remains controversial in academic research. The present research contends that the true level of SDR in organizational measures has often been underestimated because the SDR scales used to detect this bias (i.e., the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding and the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale) were never intended for use in organizational settings. We therefore develop and validate the SDR-O, which is a short, unidimensional scale designed to measure the impression management component of socially desirable responding in the workplace and other organizational contexts. We demonstrate that the SDR-O is a valid measure of the conscious tendency of organizational respondents to create an overly positive (i.e., inauthentic) impression via their answers to questions. Our research has important implications for academic and managerial research on the wide array of organizational topics that have a desirability component, including employee personality traits, performance, ethics, citizenship, and deviance.

A Step Forward in Identifying Socially Desirable Respondents: An Integrated Machine Learning Model Considering T‐Scores, Response Time, Kinematic Indicators, and Eye Movements

Context: In high‐stakes assessments, such as court cases or managerial evaluations, decision‐makers heavily rely on psychological testing. These assessments often play a crucial role in determining important decisions that affect a person’s life and have a significant impact on society.Problem Statement: Research indicates that many psychological assessments are compromised by respondents’ deliberate distortions and inaccurate self‐presentations. Among these sources of bias, socially desirable responding (SDR) describes the tendency to provide overly positive self‐descriptions. This positive response bias can invalidate test results and lead to inaccurate assessments.Objectives: The present study is aimed at investigating the utility of mouse‐ and eye‐tracking technologies for detecting SDR in psychological assessments. By integrating these technologies, the study sought to develop more effective methods for identifying when respondents are presenting themselves in a favorable light.Methods: Eighty‐five participants completed the Lie (L) and Correction (K) scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory‐2 (MMPI‐2) twice: once answering honestly and once presenting themselves in a favorable light, with the order of conditions balanced. Repeated measures univariate analyses were conducted on L and K scale T‐scores, as well as on mouse‐ and eye‐tracking features, to compare the honest and instructed SDR conditions. Additionally, machine learning models were developed to integrate T‐scores, kinematic indicators, and eye movements for predicting SDR.Results: The results showed that participants in the SDR condition recorded significantly higher T‐scores, longer response times, wider mouse trajectories, and avoided looking at the answers they intended to fake, compared to participants in the honest condition. Machine learning algorithms predicted SDR with 70%–78% accuracy.Conclusion: New assessment strategies using mouse‐ and eye‐tracking can help practitioners identify whether data is genuine or fabricated, potentially enhancing decision‐making accuracy.Implications: Combining self‐report measures with implicit data can improve SDR detection, particularly in managerial, organizational, and forensic contexts where precise assessments are crucial.

Cultural Bias in Parent Reports: The Role of Socialization Goals When Parents Report on Their Child’s Problem Behavior

It has been called into question whether widely used screening instruments for child mental health can provide comparable results across countries and cultures. Socialization goals can influence whether and to what extent a parent considers a behavior to be problematic and thus might influence parental reports on their child’s behavior. We tested comparability of parental reports between native German (N = 116) and Turkish origin (N = 77) parents in Germany in an online study using a vignette approach. Parents were asked to rate the perceived problem severity of the same behavior depicted in the vignettes. We expected and found that parents of Turkish origin in Germany rate the externalizing problem behaviour depicted in the vignettes as more problematic compared to native German parents. The effect was fully mediated by parental approval of the socialization goals obedience and collectivism. We also controlled for social desirability responding and an extreme response style.

Validity of Chatbot Use for Mental Health Assessment: Experimental Study

Mental disorders in adolescence and young adulthood are major public health concerns. Digital tools such as text-based conversational agents (ie, chatbots) are a promising technology for facilitating mental health assessment. However, the human-like interaction style of chatbots may induce potential biases, such as socially desirable responding (SDR), and may require further effort to complete assessments. This study aimed to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of chatbots for mental health assessments, the effect of assessment mode on SDR, and the effort required by participants for assessments using chatbots compared with established modes. In a counterbalanced within-subject design, we assessed 2 different constructs-psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory-18) and problematic alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-3)-in 3 modes (chatbot, paper-and-pencil, and web-based), and examined convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, we investigated the effect of mode on SDR, controlling for perceived sensitivity of items and individuals' tendency to respond in a socially desirable way, and we also assessed the perceived social presence of modes. Including a between-subject condition, we further investigated whether SDR is increased in chatbot assessments when applied in a self-report setting versus when human interaction may be expected. Finally, the effort (ie, complexity, difficulty, burden, and time) required to complete the assessments was investigated. A total of 146 young adults (mean age 24, SD 6.42 years; n=67, 45.9% female) were recruited from a research panel for laboratory experiments. The results revealed high positive correlations (all P<.001) of measures of the same construct across different modes, indicating the convergent validity of chatbot assessments. Furthermore, there were no correlations between the distinct constructs, indicating discriminant validity. Moreover, there were no differences in SDR between modes and whether human interaction was expected, although the perceived social presence of the chatbot mode was higher than that of the established modes (P<.001). Finally, greater effort (all P<.05) and more time were needed to complete chatbot assessments than for completing the established modes (P<.001). Our findings suggest that chatbots may yield valid results. Furthermore, an understanding of chatbot design trade-offs in terms of potential strengths (ie, increased social presence) and limitations (ie, increased effort) when assessing mental health were established.

Evaluation of the Self on the Big Two and their Facets: Exploring the Model and its Nomological Network

Social evaluation of the self, of others, and of groups rests on two dimensions, also called ‘the Big Two’ (Horizontal: Communion, Warmth; Vertical: Agency, Competence). These Big Two have recently been broken down into two facets each. The Vertical dimension comprises Ability and Assertiveness, the Horizontal dimension Friendliness and Morality (Abele et al., 2008,2016,2021). In three studies, the present paper further explores this dimensions/facets conceptualization. We ask if the facets add explanatory power over and above the dimensions; and we analyze a number of criterion variables not considered before. Participants always had to rate themselves on the dimensions/facets and answered additional measures. These were social desirable responding and item valence. These are interesting from a methodological point of view. Self-efficacy and dominance orientation (vertical facets) and social value orientation (horizontal facets) were of interest with respect to the distinction of the facets. Finally, life satisfaction and self-awareness were analyzed as more remote constructs. Findings supported the dimension/facets model; they supported the construct validity of the Big Two; they supported the construct validity of the facets; and they revealed instances, under which distinguishing between the facets is promising. Further research perspectives regarding targets of evaluation and regarding construct validity particularly of the Horizontal facets are outlined. We summarize that the facet conceptualization is an important extension of the prominent Big Two approach.

A Relational Framework between Survey Topic, Sponsor, and Socially Desirable Responding: An Online Survey Experiment

Research in survey methodology indicates that survey attributes, such as topic and sponsor influence survey participation and data quality. This paper primarily aims to examine whether such attributes influence socially desirable responding in an online survey setting, a setting which is less studied in the literature than face-to-face interview settings with regards to social desirability. To achieve this aim, it empirically tests the effects of survey topic, survey sponsor, introduction interest, and perceived topic sensitivity on socially desirable responding (SDR) across a range of items in a questionnaire. The survey experiment is based on a convenience sample of higher education students who filled out an online self-administered questionnaire, which also included a short version of the Marlowe-Crowne SDR scale. The findings showed that the tendency to SDR does not significantly differ by survey topic and sponsor. However, it varies by introduction interest, and intriguingly, more interested respondents demonstrated a higher tendency to SDR. Also, the tendency to SDR marginally differed by the perceived topic sensitivity.

정서전염과 공감의 관계

Objectives The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between empathy and emotional contagion, and effect of facial expression mimicry treatment on enhancement of emotional contagion and/or empathy.&#x0D; Methods In order to supplement the limitations of measurement method, both self-reported questionnaire and experimental measurement were used. Emotional Contagion Scale(ECS) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index(IRI) were used in survey research, and Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding(BIDR) were used to control social desirability bias. In the experiment, participants watched interview video clips and responded how they empathized with the interviewee and how their mood had changed. The experimental group additionally proceed with a treatment that mimics the facial expression of the interviewee, and examined whether facial expression mimicry treatment could enhance emotional contagion and empathy in college students.&#x0D; Results Self-reported survey results indicated that sensitivity of emotional contagion has a significant positive influence on levels of empathy, even though control the social desirable responding. Also, emotional contagion accounted for 27.7% of variance in empathy. However, in the experiment, there was not a consistent significant correlation between emotional contagion and emotional empathy in the correlation analysis. Also, there were no differences on the level of emotional contagion and empathy between the groups.&#x0D; Conclusions The implications of the present study are to try to clarify the relationship between emotional contagion and empathy via both self-reported questionnaires and experiments.

Convergent validity of methods for assessing socially desirable responding in personality items

Methods for detecting socially desirable responding (SDR) differ in terms of ease of administration and may also differ in their capacity to capture SDR. Several methods have been used to capture desirable self-evaluations, among which are the better-than-average evaluation, fake-good instructions, social desirability scale value (SDSV) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Short Form (MCSD-SF). The purpose of this research was to evaluate agreement between these methods in two studies, using personality items. Data for Study I was collected with internet surveys sent out to university students. The surveys contained a test of the better-than-average effect on the Big Five Inventory (BFI) items, the original BFI, the MCSD-SF, the BFI with fake-good instructions and instructions to evaluate the desirability (SDSV) of each BFI item. The findings suggest that three of the four methods capture socially desirable responding in personality items (fake-good, SDSV and MCSD-SF), with correlations between methods ranging between r = .80 and .98 (indicating high convergence between methods). However, the better-than-average manipulation did not produce more SDR indicating that it cannot be used to evaluate the desirability of item content. Study II was conducted to confirm the convergent validity of the remaining three methods (fake-good, SDSV and MCSD-SF). Results supported the convergent validity of the three methods with correlations between methods ranging between r = .84 and .98.

On the predictors of pro-environmental behaviors: integrating personal values and the 2-MEV among secondary school students in Tanzania

The role of personal values in understanding pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors has received considerable attention from psychological researchers. However, little is known about the mutual interaction of personal values and the Theory of Ecological Attitudes (2-MEV) in explaining pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). To explore the mediating factors with which pro-environmental behaviors are explained via environmental attitudes and personal values, this article reports the study findings from secondary school students. Specifically, the article indicates the extent to which a unified model of personal values and the Theory of Ecological Attitudes (2-MEV) explain self-reported PEBs. The cross-cultural validity of the 2-MEV for measuring environmental attitudes (EA) among the selected respondents is as well investigated. A cross-sectional survey of 408 secondary school students was used for data collection. As expected, principal component analysis with a varimax rotation confirmed the two-factor structure of the 2-MEV measuring EA with two uncorrelated factors of Preservation and Utilization. Interestingly, multiple regression analyses indicated that a combined model of personal values and the 2-MEV provides a more explained variance of self-reported PEBs compared to when any of the two predicators is used independently. Overall, altruistic value provides the largest predictive power over egoistic and biospheric values in mediating EA. In turn, the general model that includes personal values and the 2-MEV indicates that Preservation makes the largest and unique contribution in explaining recycling, biodiversity protection, environmental activism, and general PEBs. Conversely, the Utilization factor provides the largest negative explained variance for management of environmental pollution behavior. These findings remain unaltered even when the age of respondents and social desirability responding are statistically controlled. The implications regarding these study findings are discussed.

Oral-Genital Contact and the Meaning of \u201cHad Sex\u201d: The Role of Social Desirability

Previous studies have found that a large proportion of college students do not consider oral-genital contact as having “had sex.” In all studies, the questions posed were hypothetical. In the present study, university students were asked about their own personal sexual experiences. From a large pool of participants, two subgroups were identified: those who responded “No” to having “had sex” but responded “Yes” to having had oral-genital contact (No–Yes), and those who responded “Yes” to having had both sex and oral-genital contact (Yes–Yes). None of the participants in these two subgroups self-reported vaginal or anal intercourse. The No–Yes group was significantly higher in social desirability (p < .0005) as measured by the Marlowe-Crowne scale and was also significantly higher in religiosity (p < .01) as measured on a 7-point Likert scale. There was a modest correlation between level of religiosity and social desirability (r = .25, p < .01). It was concluded that many students who have had oral-genital contact but deny having had sex do so because of impression management, i.e., a desire to present themselves more positively. These results provide further evidence that social desirability responding is a serious problem for sex researchers, one that affects even the most basic questions about having had sex.

The Phantom of the ‘Responsible Consumer’: Unmasking the Intention–Action Gap with an Indirect Questioning Technique

The intention-action gap stands out in research on sustainable consumption for decades. The current research explores the role of socially desirable responding (SDR) in the appearance of this gap by utilising an indirect questioning technique. Two online experiments (n=306 and n=334) demonstrate, in line with most market surveys, that consumers present themselves as highly responsible when being assessed with the standard survey measurement approach (i.e., direct questioning). However, the responses of participants toward the exact same measures of consumers’ social responsibility perceptions and behavioural intentions heavily drop when applying an indirect questioning technique, indicating a substantial overstatement of consumers’ social responsibility perceptions in traditional market surveys. Furthermore, this study provides novel evidence regarding the validity and underlying mechanism of the indirect questioning technique, thereby alleviating long-lasting concerns about this method. Implications for the intention–action gap discussion and consumer ethics research are proposed.

The Lazy or Dishonest Respondent: Detection and Prevention

Self-report measures are characterized as being susceptible to threats associated with deliberate dissimulation or response distortion (i.e., social desirability responding) and careless responding. Careless responding typically arises in low-stakes settings (e.g., participating in a study for course credit) where some respondents are not motivated to respond in a conscientious manner to the items. In contrast, in high-stakes assessments (e.g., prehire assessments), because of the outcomes associated with their responses, respondents are motivated to present themselves in as favorable a light as possible and, thus, may respond dishonestly in an effort to accomplish this objective. In this article, we draw a distinction between the lazy respondent, which we associate with careless responding, and the dishonest respondent, which we associate with response distortion. We then seek to answer the following questions for both careless responding and response distortion: ( a) What is it? ( b) Why is it a problem or concern? ( c) Why do people engage in it? ( d) How pervasive is it? ( e) Can and how is it prevented or mitigated? ( f) How is it detected? ( g) What does one do when one detects it? We conclude with a discussion of suggested future research directions and some practical guidelines for practitioners and researchers.

Impression management and overclaiming on job applications: Related to future sales performance?

AbstractDespite decades of research on the role of socially desirable responding (SDR) in hiring contexts, it remains unclear whether job applicant SDR is related to future employee performance. Drawing on a large sample of 1,084 retail sales employees and their original job application data, this study examined the predictive validity of two operationalizations of SDR: (a) impression management captured using a personality scale and (b) overclaiming familiarity with a list of products that were directly relevant to the job. Neither measure was used to inform the hiring decisions. Results showed that job applicant impression management and overclaiming were unrelated to four indicators of future sales performance as employees. Implications for organizational selection policies involving applicant SDR are discussed.

Implicit attitudes towards risky driving behaviors: Evidence of validity for the implicit association test

Introduction: Attitudes toward risky driving behaviors are commonly evaluated through direct self-report measures. Nevertheless, these instruments have limitations, such as socially-desirable responding. This study examines the validity of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as an indirect measure of attitudes towards risky driving. An IAT with “risky” vs. “safe” driving behaviors categories was evaluated. Method: A sample of 100 participants (ranging from 18 to 70 years of age) completed the IAT and measures of attitudes, driving styles, personality traits, risk-taking (IOWA Gambling Task), and social desirability (Driver Social Desirability Scale). Results: A high level of internal consistency was found for IAT scores. The IAT was correlated with driving styles (risky, dissociative, and careful dimensions), risk-related personality traits (impulsive/sensation seeking and aggression/hostility) and risk-taking measures. IAT scores were also associated with self-reported risky driving behaviors (r = 0.33). As expected, a higher level of negative implicit attitudes was found among young drivers. The driver social desirability scale was correlated with most self-report measures, but not with the IAT. Conclusion: The present study provides reliability and validity evidence for the IAT as an indirect measure of attitudes towards risky driving. The IAT can serve as an important complement to conventional self-report measures of driving attitudes. Practical Applications: Potential use of global measure of implicit attitudes toward risky driving behaviors in the evaluation, education, and training of drivers are discussed.

The role of self-deceptive enhancement and impression management in adolescents’ self-reported attitudes toward drinking, willingness to drink and risky alcohol consumption

ABSTRACT Objective This study focuses on self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM) as socially desirable responding tendencies influencing adolescents’ self-reported measures of alcohol consumption. Specifically, it aims at examining their associations with basic demographics (gender, age, and socio-economic status) and drinking attitudes and behaviors, as well as testing potential interaction effects on risky use. Methods One hundred and sixty Italian students (45.6% females), 13–17 aged (M = 14.82, SD = 1.11), completed basic demographics and measures of social desirability responding, attitudes toward drinking, willingness to drink, and risky alcohol consumption. Pearson’s correlations, T-tests and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results SDE and IM are not associated with basic demographics. Overall, IM is associated with attitudes toward drinking, willingness to drink, and risky alcohol consumption, while no association is found for self-deception. Some interaction effects emerge showing that the problem of underreporting affects especially impression managers with more positive attitudes toward drinking. Instead, self-deceivers who are more prone to drinking could inflate their consumption levels. Conclusion This study can expand our understanding of the underlying processes involved in socially desirable responding, which could allow the development of effective strategies to minimize measurement biases in assessing hazardous drinking in adolescent samples.

The role of social desirability responding in the longitudinal relations between intention and behaviour

Social desirability responding (SDR) is the tendency of respondents to answer survey questions in a manner that will be viewed favourably by others. Scholars in environmental psychology have argued SDR influences individuals’ answers to surveys asking their pro-environmental intentions, attitude and behaviour. Yet empirical evidence indicates the correlations between SDR and environmentalism questions are weak, which was confirmed by a unpublished meta-analysis reporting pooled correlations ranging from .06 to .11. We used data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 6518) to examine possible subtle relations between two SDR items measuring self-deceptive enhancement and impression management with several environmental questions in a national sample. Cross-sectional and delayed correlations were weak, but autoregressive cross-lagged models showed a marginal interaction between the impression management item and self-reported behaviour in predicting change in pro-environmental intention one-year after. We discuss practical implications of the findings.

Controlling for Response Biases in Self-Report Scales: Forced-Choice vs. Psychometric Modeling of Likert Items.

One important problem in the measurement of non-cognitive characteristics such as personality traits and attitudes is that it has traditionally been made through Likert scales, which are susceptible to response biases such as social desirability (SDR) and acquiescent (ACQ) responding. Given the variability of these response styles in the population, ignoring their possible effects on the scores may compromise the fairness and the validity of the assessments. Also, response-style-induced errors of measurement can affect the reliability estimates and overestimate convergent validity by correlating higher with other Likert-scale-based measures. Conversely, it can attenuate the predictive power over non-Likert-based indicators, given that the scores contain more errors. This study compares the validity of the Big Five personality scores obtained: (1) ignoring the SDR and ACQ in graded-scale items (GSQ), (2) accounting for SDR and ACQ with a compensatory IRT model, and (3) using forced-choice blocks with a multi-unidimensional pairwise preference model (MUPP) variant for dominance items. The overall results suggest that ignoring SDR and ACQ offered the worst validity evidence, with a higher correlation between personality and SDR scores. The two remaining strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages. The results from the empirical reliability and the convergent validity analysis indicate that when modeling social desirability with graded-scale items, the SDR factor apparently captures part of the variance of the Agreeableness factor. On the other hand, the correlation between the corrected GSQ-based Openness to Experience scores, and the University Access Examination grades was higher than the one with the uncorrected GSQ-based scores, and considerably higher than that using the estimates from the forced-choice data. Conversely, the criterion-related validity of the Forced Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) scores was similar to the results found in meta-analytic studies, correlating higher with Conscientiousness. Nonetheless, the FCQ-scores had considerably lower reliabilities and would demand administering more blocks. Finally, the results are discussed, and some notes are provided for the treatment of SDR and ACQ in future studies.

Addiction, locus of control and health status: A study on patients with substance use disorder in recovery settings

ABSTRACTObjective: This study aims at testing (a) the association between locus of control and socio-demographic, drug use, and treatment-related variables in patients with drug addiction following rehabilitation, and (b) whether locus of control may account for physical and mental health status also controlling for social desirability responding. Methods: Seventy-eight participants were recruited within therapeutic communities for drug rehabilitation treatment. They completed measures of locus of control (LCB), health-related status (SF-12) and social desirability responding (BIDR-6 short form) and provided further socio-demographic, drug use, and treatment-related information. T-tests, Pearson’s correlations, and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results: Education and treatment duration represent the only two meaningful factors potentially favoring higher internal locus of control. Locus of control results to be a predictor of mental health status, explaining for about 6.5% of the outcome variance. However, when considering the potential influence of social desirability responding such a relationship does not remain statistically significant anymore. Conclusion: The study provides some insights about the relationship between locus of control and individual and treatment-related variables, that could be further explored to promote treatment success in rehabilitation programs. As well, social desirability arises as a major concern to be handled when dealing with substance use populations.

Deceptive Dynamics in Drug Addiction and Their Role in Control Beliefs and Health Status Reporting: A Study on People With Substance Use Disorder in Treatment

This study aims at exploring deceptive dynamics (i.e., impression management [IM], self-deception, and emotional manipulation [EM]) and their role in control beliefs and health status reporting in a sample of people treated for substance use disorder. Seventy-eight participants following drug rehabilitation treatment were recruited, who provided background information and completed measures of social desirability responding, EM, locus of control, and health-related status. Moderated-regression analyses and t tests were performed. The results highlight that self-deception is associated with not reporting the use of secondary substances and being in treatment for a shorter time period. IM appears as the main deceptive tendency able to account for internal control beliefs and better mental health. Some interaction effects emerge among the examined deceptive tendencies, which suggest to deepen the role of EM as a risk factor for drug relapse and treatment success.

Personality facet loadings onto the general factor of personality change when social desirability responding is considered

The General Factor of Personality (GFP) has been found to be more robust under faking conditions and to correlate significantly with both self-report faking and social desirability responding, yet some still regard the GFP as a meaningful construct. This study examines the structure of the GFP (based on facet loadings on the first unrotated principal axis factor) when five individual social desirability/impression management scores (as well as the total) are partialled from the facets. Controlling for the social desirability/impression management variance altered the loadings of the personality facets. Specifically, loadings for the facets varied in magnitude, and for some, even changed direction when individual and combined measures of social desirability/impression management were removed. The results suggest that the GFP is not consistent in structure and is influenced by social desirability/impression management. Further, the results suggest that the interpretation of the structure of the GFP may change depending on how individuals present themselves when completing personality measures.