Blackwell Reference Online

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The social desirability bias is a major →  response set that is possibly active when data are collected in empirical social studies with →  interviews , psychometric tests, or questionnaires in particular. This tendency interferes with the “true values” of the subjects' traits or states that are to be assessed and puts a systematic bias onto the measured values (→  Scales ; Measurement Theory ; Validity ). People react in a socially desirable way if they do not answer in a way or choose the alternative that best reflects the intensity or strength of the state or trait that is to be measured. Instead, subjects answer in a way that they assume to be expected by their peer group or the interviewer/experimenter or approved by the general public (→  Climate of Opinion ; Public Opinion ). For example, a person who sympathizes with a radical (right-wing) political party and is asked in a questionnaire to state his or her beliefs concerning migration or foreign persons will probably give moderate answers despite holding a more radical view. By that, the person intends not to stand out from other subjects or to the experimenter as being deviant or radical. A stronger bias toward social desirability is to be expected if the questions are closely related to →  social norms and value systems and if the subject is aware of that relationship. The amount to which a data collection method ... log in or subscribe to read full text