A CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL REEXAMINATION OF THE MEASUREMENT OF THE SOCIAL DESIRABILITY OF ITEMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR DETECTING DESIRABLE RESPONSE STYLE AND SCALE DEVELOPMENT

This paper calls into question traditional methods of measuring the social desirability of items and their use in scale construction. First, we make explicit that the proper focus for desirability studies of items and traits are the rated desirabilities of the alternative item responses indicating different trait levels. Second, the results from our first study show that the relation between degree of endorsement of an item and its judged desirability level is often nonlinear and varies across items such that no general model of item desirability can be adopted that will accurately represent the relations across all items, traits, and trait levels. In addition, the nature of these relationships can vary depending on whether desirability is considered in a work or general context. Third, results from a second study indicate specifically that people when instructed to self-present in a maximally desirable manner will choose for some attributes a moderate level of endorsement (e.g., "agree") rather than a more extreme response option (e.g., "strongly agree"). Subjects offer several different reasons for viewing the less extreme response options, which yield more moderate trait level scores, as more desirable. These reasons are linked to perceptions of the more extreme response option as being associated with negative behaviors and concerns about how others will view a more extreme response to the item. Both studies indicate that desirable responding to personality items is more complex than previously believed.     

Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms,diagnosis and prescribed cure

An analysis of social desirability in personality assessment is presented. Starting with the symptoms, Study 1 showed that mean ratings of graded personality items are moderately to strongly linearly related to social desirability (Self Deception, Impression formation, and the first Principal Component), suggesting that item popularity may be a useful heuristic tool for identifying items which elicit socially desirable responding. We diagnose the cause of socially desirable responding as an interaction between the evaluative content of the item and enhancement motivation in the rater. Study 2 introduced a possible cure; evaluative neutralization of items. To test the feasibility of the method lay psychometricians (undergraduates) reformulated existing personality test items according to written instructions. The new items were indeed lower in social desirability while essentially retaining the five factor structure and reliability of the inventory. We conclude that although neutralization is no miracle cure, it is simple and has beneficial effects.     

Social desirability scale values of locus of control scale items

Summaiy: Three groups of subjects rated each item in Rotter's I-E Scale for its social desirability value. Social desirability scale values (SDSV) of paired items were compared with one another. Results indicated that paired items are not sufficiently similar in their SDSVs, thus enabling subjects to respond on the basis of social desirability. All three groups rated internal items as being significantly more socially desirable than external items. The correlations between the SDSV ratings of the three groups were highly significant. The results indicate that the scale, as it is currently used, is seriously deficient.     

A Scoring Scheme for the TAT and other Verbal Projective Techniques

Summaiy: Three groups of subjects rated each item in Rotter's I-E Scale for its social desirability value. Social desirability scale values (SDSV) of paired items were compared with one another. Results indicated that paired items are not sufficiently similar in their SDSVs, thus enabling subjects to respond on the basis of social desirability. All three groups rated internal items as being significantly more socially desirable than external items. The correlations between the SDSV ratings of the three groups were highly significant. The results indicate that the scale, as it is currently used, is seriously deficient.     

应聘情境下作假识别量表的开发

在应聘情境中, 被试容易对人格测验作假。应对作假的常用方法是采用社会称许性量表对作假直接测量, 再去校正和识别作假效应。但是采用社会称许性量表测量作假存在很多问题, 因而基于作假的特殊性质开发了《作假识别量表》。采用探索性因素分析证实了量表的单维性, 解释率为54.650%。概化理论检验表明测验信度较好, G系数为0.906, j系数为0.902。采用一个真实的应聘情境检验效度, 发现《作假识别量表》对作假更加敏感, 能够比较充分地测量作假。     

Social desirability, personality questionnaires, and the “better than average” effect

It is well established that respondents are much more likely to rate themselves highly on personality questionnaire items with high social desirability (SD) than on items with low SD. However, conflicting explanations have been offered for this phenomenon. In the present study, 286 participants were randomly assigned to four groups that rated 119 items from two well-known personality questionnaires. One group of participants rated themselves, a second group rated their family and friends, a third rated “people in general,” and a fourth rated the items’ SD. It was found that mean SD ratings of personality items were highly correlated with mean self-ratings and with mean ratings of family and friends for the same items (all rs > .800), but not with mean ratings of “people in general.” In other words, participants strongly tended to rate themselves, their family, and their friends as high on socially desirable qualities, but this tendency did not extend to ratings of people in general. These results support the conclusion that respondents’ personality ratings of themselves, their family and friends, but not of people in general, are influenced by the form of self-serving bias known as the “better than average effect.”     

Accounting for the evaluative factor in self-ratings provides a more accurate estimate of the relationship between personality traits and well-being

Social desirability may cause spurious relations in self-rating measures. The present study sought to disentangle socially desirable responding and content in the relation between measures of personality traits and well-being. Social desirability was operationalized as the evaluative factor (the tendency to react to evaluative content in questionnaire items). We collected self- and peer-ratings of personality and self-ratings of well-being from 219 participants. The evaluative factor in personality self-ratings significantly predicted well-being and explained more variance than all Big Five traits combined. The evaluative factor in personality peer-ratings had no unique relation to well-being. These findings suggest that previous estimates of the relationship between personality traits and well-being have generally been exaggerated. Different methods of accounting for social desirability are discussed.     

A multi-informant study of the influence of targets’ and perceivers’ social desirability on self-other agreement in ratings of the HEXACO personality dimensions

In the current research we evaluated the impact of socially desirable responding on the strength of self-other agreement in personality judgments. We used a multi-informant design with self- and other-reports of HEXACO personality dimensions as well as self-reported and other-reported social desirability. Analyses were based on 305 primary participants and 709 informants. As shown by the results, neither self-other agreement nor other-other agreement regarding the personality dimensions was affected by social desirability. Furthermore, significant correlations between self-rated and other-rated social desirability emerged. The results are discussed as further evidence that most social desirability scales seem to measure substantive personality traits instead of response styles.     

Investigating the influence of social desirability on personality factor structure

This study provides a comprehensive investigation into whether social desirability alters the factor structure of personality measures. The study brought together 4 large data sets wherein different organizational samples responded to different personality measures. This facilitated conducting 4 separate yet parallel investigations. Within each data set, individuals identified through a social desirability scale as responding in an honest manner were grouped together, and individuals identified as responding in a highly socially desirable manner were grouped together. Using various analyses, the fit of higher order factor structure models was compared across the 2 groups. Results were the same for each data set. Social desirability had little influence on the higher order factor structures that characterized the relationships among the scales of the personality measures.     

Socially desirable responding and its elusive effects on the validity of personality assessments

Past studies of socially desirable self-reports on the items of personality measures have found inconsistent effects of the response bias on the measures' predictive validities, with some studies reporting small effects and other studies reporting large effects. Using Monte Carlo methods, we evaluated various models of socially desirable responding by systematically adding predetermined amounts of the bias to the simulated personality trait scores of hypothetical test respondents before computing test-criterion validity correlations. Our study generally supported previous findings that have reported relatively minor decrements in criterion prediction, even with personality scores that were massively infused with desirability bias. Furthermore, the response bias failed to reveal itself as a statistical moderator of test validity or as a suppressor of validity. Large differences between some respondents' obtained test scores and their true trait scores, however, meant that the personality measure's construct validity would be severely compromised and, more specifically, that estimates of those individuals' criterion performance would be grossly in error. Our discussion focuses on reasons for the discrepant results reported in the literature pertaining to the effect of socially desirable responding on criterion validity. More important, we explain why the lack of effects of desirability bias on the usual indicators of validity, moderation, and suppression should not be surprising.     

Warning Against Faking on a Personality Test: Effects on Applicant Reactions and Personality Test Scores

To reduce faking on personality tests, applicants may be warned that a social desirability scale is embedded in the test. Although this procedure has been shown to substantially reduce faking, there is no data that addresses how such a warning may influence applicant reactions toward the selection procedure or the relationships among personality constructs. Using an organizational justice framework, this study examines the effect of warning on procedural justice perceptions. Additionally, the extent to which warning changes the relationships among personality variables, socially desirable responding, and organizational justice variables, was explored. The results suggest that warning did not negatively affect test‐taker reactions. However, the relationships among the justice measures and the personality variables and socially desirable responding differed across the warned and unwarned groups. The organizational justice model fit best and there was less multicollinearity among the personality variables in the warned condition, compared to the unwarned condition. Thus, providing a warning appears to have positive consequences when using personality measures.     

MMPI-2 L + K and L + K - F indexes of underreporting: normative and desirable responding

Norms based on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) normative sample are provided for the L + K and L + K - F indexes of underreporting and defensiveness. Index scores produced by consistently desirable responding, which was guided by desirability ratings of the MMPI-2 items, also are provided and compared with scores produced by underreporting in other studies. The indexes correlate highly with other measures of underreporting in both normative and clinical samples. The L and K scales assess different types of underreporting and should be interpreted separately as well as in combination. The L scale can be elevated by undesirable responding or random responding in addition to desirable responding.     

Social desirability and self-reports: testing models of socially desirable responding

The present research investigated the cognitive processes involved in responding to self-report items under varying conditions of social desirability. Participants in three experiments judged the extent to which a set of items (personality traits in Experiments 1 and 2; behaviors in Experiment 3) described them under instructions that either increased or decreased concerns with social desirability. Under most conditions, instructions that produced the greatest concern with social desirability resulted in the longest response times. This finding is consistent with the view that social desirability operates as an editing process; participants retrieve the requested information and then evaluate it before responding. There was also some evidence for individual differences in social desirability; participants scoring high on the trait of self-deception were generally faster at making these judgments than were participants scoring low on self-deception.     

Probing item social desirability by correlating personality items with Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR): A validity examination

Researchers often include a social desirability measure in personality measures, commonly the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR), and correlate it with personality items to probe for social desirability of the items. A strong correlation between BIDR scores and a personality item would indicate high item social desirability. The current research assesses the validity of this practice. Results showed that these correlations have high validity only when BIDR scores are calculated as a continuous variable rather than as dichotomized item scores. In addition, self-deception scores have higher validity for detecting item social desirability than do impression management scores. The current research supported the use of the self-deception scores, in particular, to detect highly desirable or undesirable items.     

Personality goes a long way: The malleability of opposite‐sex physical attractiveness

This study tested the influence of personality information on judgments of physical attractiveness. Employing a within‐subject design, 56 female and 22 male college students rated attractiveness of opposite‐sex photos; participated in a distraction task; viewed each photo again, along with personality information (desirable, undesirable, none); and then rated the photos for physical attractiveness, desirability as a friend, and desirability as a dating partner. Personality information produced significant changes in ratings of physical attractiveness for attractive, neutral, and unattractive targets. The pattern of results is consistent with a model in which desirability of the target’s personality leads to greater desirability as a friend, leading to greater desirability as a dating partner, leading to the target being judged as more physically attractive.     

Development of the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale

This study describes the construction of the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale (SRBS-2), a 240-item self-report inventory comprised of male-valued, female-valued, and sex-specific items in four interest/behavior areas: Recreational and leisure activities, vocational preferences, social interaction, and marital behaviors. Two-hundred sixteen items were administered to 520 undergraduate males and females under three instructional sets. One-third of the subjects compared the typical young adult man and woman on the items, one-third rated the desirability of the items for men and women, and the remaining subjects rated themselves. Subjects in this latter condition also rated the 160 items from the SRBS-1. Typical and desirability ratings were used to select items to add to the SRBS-1 male-valued (more typical of men but desirable for both sexes), female-valued, and sex-specific (more typical of one sex and desirable only for that sex) scales. The resulting overall and area subscales had adequate internal consistency. Intercorrelations among the area subscales showed a fair degree of consistency across behavior areas, suggesting that global sex-role behavior assessments may be obtained with the overall SRBS-2 scales but that more detailed and accurate assessments require the use of separate area subscale scores.     

Can confidentiality of data pay off?

Ss were administered a self-report personality measure and a social desirability scale under conditions of Confidentiality, Anonymity or Nonanonymity alone. The tester's written assurance that the Ss' disclosures would be kept strictly confidential had a substantial moderating effect (when compared with Nonanonymity alone) on correlations between some subscales of the personality measure and the social desirability scale. In contrast to an earlier finding, there were no appreciable effects of Anonymity when compared with Nonanonymity alone. It appears that confidentiality of data can pay off in terms of increased predictive validity of some self-report personality measures by moderating the potential biasing effect of test response distortion due to socially desirable responding.     

Trait means and desirabilities as artifactual and real sources of differential stability of personality traits

Using data from 3 personality trait inventories and 7 samples, we show that trait items that have means near the scale midpoint and that vary more in their perceived desirability (e.g., items related to dominance, creativity, traditionalism, and organization) tend to be more stable over time, whereas items with means near the scale maximum or minimum and that vary less in their perceived desirability (e.g., items related to agreeableness, intellect, and reliability) tend to be less stable. Our findings indicate that items with means near the scale maximum or minimum have lower stabilities primarily due to having lower measurement dependability (i.e., short-term stabilities unlikely to reflect true change). However, items varying more in their desirability are more stable even after accounting for measurement dependability, consistent with the view that trait stability is facilitated in part by individuals actively working to develop in the direction they find desirable.     

The effects of social desirability bias on applied measures of goal orientation

This research examined the extent to which social desirability responding influences two measures of goal orientation tailored to work (VandeWalle, 1997) and academic (Midgley et al., 1998) domains. Method bias analyses indicated a significant negative influence of social desirability on responses to learning goal items, and a significant positive influence of social desirability responding on performance-avoid goal items, with the VandeWalle scale showing larger effects than the Midgley et al. scale. Performance-approach goal items showed minimal effects of social desirability responding. Results are discussed with respect to the use of these measures in larger models of motivation and performance.