Social desirability is
the tendency of some respondents to report an answer in a way they deem to be more socially acceptable than would be their
“true” answer. … Social desirability bias intervenes in the last stage of the response process when the response is communicated to the researcher.
Social desirability bias occurs
when the topic of the survey or interview is a sensitive one
. The respondents will give a socially accepted answer because the matter is too sensitive for them so, they don’t want to reveal their true feelings about it.
In other words, participants have a tendency to answer in ways that make them look good in the eyes of others, regardless of the accuracy of their answers. For example, most people
would deny that they drive after drinking alcohol
because it reflects poorly on them and others would most likely disapprove.
In social science research, social-desirability bias is a type of response bias that is
the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others
. It can take the form of over-reporting “good behavior” or under-reporting “bad”, or undesirable behavior.
People
naturally want others to view them favorably with respect to socially acceptable values, behaviors, beliefs, and opinions
. Thus, answers to survey questions are often guided by what is perceived as being socially acceptable.
Since the beginning of survey research, there have been many examples of socially desirable answers: for example,
overreporting of having a library card
, having voted, and attending church and underreporting of bankruptcy, drunken driving, illegal drug use, and negative racial attitudes.
- Keep it anonymous: …
- Use a third-party: …
- Use an online platform: …
- Focus on word choice: …
- Use indirect questioning: …
- Use both stated and derived measurements:
Social desirability factor, which is defined as
participants’ tendency to give ‘desirable’ answers in response to attitudinal questionnaires in order to
put forward a more socially acceptable self-image is likely to take on pivotal importance when another questionnaire probing sensitive areas of private feelings and …
What is desirability bias in psychology?
Social desirability bias is
the tendency to underreport socially undesirable attitudes and behaviors and to over report more desirable attributes
.
Most directly, social desirability can compromise the validity of scores on a measure
. That is, if peoples’ measured behaviors or responses are affected by social desirability, then those measurements are biased as indicators of their intended construct.
OVERVIEW. Socially desirable responding (SDR) is typically defined as
the tendency to give positive self-descriptions
. Its status as a response style rests on the clarification of an underlying psychological construct. A brief history of such attempts is provided.
Communicate and implement anonymous random model surveys
. If a respondent knows his answers won’t be shared with anyone and personal details won’t be disclosed, he will be more likely to answer truthfully. Begin your survey with an introduction telling respondents the answers they give will be kept confidential.
Social desirability bias –
The tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that looks favorably for others
. This can result in an over-reporting of good answers and an under-reporting of bad answers.
U.S. National Library of Medicine
Social Desirability
. A personality trait rendering the individual acceptable in social or interpersonal relations. It is related to social acceptance, social approval, popularity, social status, leadership qualities, or any quality making him a socially desirable companion.
What is acquiescence in psychology?
The response set called acquiescence, for example, refers to
one’s tendency to respond with “true” or “yes” answers to questionnaire items regardless of what the item content is
. It is conceivable that two people might be quite similar in all respects except for their tendency toward acquiescence.
What is the concept of nonresponse bias?
Non-response (or late-response) bias occurs
when non-responders from a sample differ in a meaningful way to responders (or early responders)
. This bias is common in descriptive, analytic and experimental research and it has been demonstrated to be a serious concern in survey studies.
