Social desirability

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Social desirability (English social desirability is) a response bias or distortion in surveys in social science and research as well as psychological testing . Social desirability is when respondents prefer to give answers that they believe are more likely to meet with social approval than the true answer that they fear social rejection.

Concept and control of social desirability

There are two types of social desirability: cultural and situational social desirability. The former is caused by internalized general behavioral expectations (e.g. due to traditional gender roles), the latter in specific stimuli of the interview situation (e.g. due to the gender or skin color of the interviewer or the public of the interview situation).

The extent of the bias due to social desirability also depends on the subject of the survey. Sensitive or embarrassing questions, for example about alcohol consumption or political preferences for parties on the right and left fringes of the party spectrum, are particularly affected.

Whether and to what extent these are conscious or unconscious tendencies is the subject of research, especially in the clinical area. The term dissimulation is used for more conscious or qualitative tendencies , for more unconscious and quantitative distortions that of trivialization , but sometimes this is equated. Simulation or aggravation are the corresponding response tendencies that express an "invention" or exaggeration of negatively assessed facts (in the clinical area, e.g. symptoms). The term faking (“pretense”) is common for both directions of deviation, faking-good corresponds to the more positive, faking-bad to the more negative.

Since the true value , i.e. the answers without the influence of social desirability, is unknown, it is difficult to see the effect. However, it is possible to identify questions that are prone to social desirability. To this end, some of the respondents are asked ( split ballot ) to answer the questions in such a way that they are presented in the most favorable light possible (faking good instruction) . Another part of the respondents is asked to answer the questions in such a way that they are presented in the most unfavorable light possible (faking bad instruction) . The more the answers of the two groups differ, the more likely it is that the question is affected by social desirability.

Measures to reduce the influence of social desirability are clever question formulations or the use of question banks , the individual questions of which are affected to different degrees by the problem. One method of estimating the proportion of honest answers is the randomized response technique .

Social Desirability Scales

In some psychological tests , the response tendency is measured with special "desirability scales" (sometimes also called lying scales) by identifying several very likely true negative facts ("I have never said the truth before.") And very unlikely positive facts ("I'm always on time." . ") Can be queried. The degree of negation of the former and affirmation of the latter is measured as the extent to which the answers are exaggerated according to social desirability. Well-known scales are the Marlowe-Crowne scale or the SD scale from Edwards. If these scales show abnormalities, an interpretation must be undertaken with appropriate caution or it must be avoided. In some tests, the values ​​of the other scales are corrected according to the extent of the deviation in the desirability scales (e.g. correction scale in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ).

literature

J. Musch, R. Brockhaus & A. Bröder: An inventory to record two factors of social desirability . Diagnostica, 48, 2002, pp. 121-129.

See also

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  1. Hartmut Esser: Can respondents lie? On the concept of "true value" in the context of the action-theoretical explanation of situation influences during the survey. In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 38, 1986, pp. 314–336, here p. 317; Rainer Schnell, Paul B. Hill and Elke Esser: Methods of empirical social research. Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, p. 332 f.
  2. ^ Alan H. Barton: Asking The Embarrassing Question . In: Public Opinion Quarterly 22, 1958, pp. 67-68.
  3. ^ Rainer Schnell, Paul B. Hill and Elke Esser: Methods of empirical social research . Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, p. 333.
  4. Markus Bühner : Introduction to the test and questionnaire construction . Pearson, 2011.
  5. cf. on social desirability in general and specifically on “Faking Good”: Jürgen Bortz and Nicola Döring: Research Methods and Evaluation . Springer, Berlin 1995, pp. 212-213.
  6. ^ Alan H. Barton: Asking The Embarrassing Question . In: Public Opinion Quarterly 22, 1958, pp. 67-68.
  7. social desirability in COD Encyclopedia of Psychology
  8. HD Mummendey: Methods and Problems of Controlling Social Desirability . In: Zeitschrift für Differielle und Diagnostische Psychologie 2, 1981, pp. 199-218.
  9. MC-SDS on sjdm.org
  10. Edwards SDS on sjdm.org