Intentional Falsification in Reports of Interpartner Aggression

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Abstract
A persistent question in studies of socially undesirable behavior concerns the truthfulness of self-report data. The current study examines the willingness of subjects to report relationship aggression. Male (N = 98) and female (N = 98) undergraduate students rated the likelihood that they would report the occurrence of various hypothetical behaviors on an anonymous questionnaire. Subjects rated themselves much less likely to report physical aggression than other positive and negative relationship behaviors. Subjects also displayed more willingness to report being the victims rather than the perpetrators of physical aggression. These results converge with evidence from other methods of assessing social desirability response bias to suggest that victim reports of interpartner aggression are less biased than are aggressor reports. The results are further discussed in terms of a two-component model of social desirability bias, involving conscious dissimulation and unconscious self-deception.

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