Biasing Effect of Respondents' Identification on Responses to a Social Desirability Scale: A Warning to Researchers
- 1 December 1976
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Psychological Reports
- Vol. 39 (3) , 756-758
- https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1976.39.3.756
Abstract
The present study investigated the potentially biasing effect of respondents' identification in regard to responses made to the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale. The degree of manifest desirability as measured by the scale was inversely related to respondents' anonymity. There was some evidence that this effect was stronger for females ( n = 31) than for males ( n = 35). These findings are relevant to the potential biasing of responses to questionnaires which include socially sensitive items.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Social control in the psychological experiment: Antisocial behavior and hypnosis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1965
- The need for approval, task categorization, and perceptual defense.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1962
- On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications.American Psychologist, 1962
- Internal and External Control as Determinants of Decision Making under Conditions of RiskPsychological Reports, 1960
- The nature of hypnosis: Artifact and essence.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1959