Social desirability bias takes place when respondents answer questions to make themselves look good, hiding their true opinions or experiences. It affects personal or emphatic topics like drug use, sexual behavior or politics.

Response bias includes social desirability. Participants tend to answer questions in socially acceptable ways or to win others’ approval.

It’s common in self-report questionnaires; however, it can affect behavioural research if participants know they’re being watched.

Human-centred research carries the possibility of researchers or respondents affecting a study’s outcomes, knowingly or subconsciously. If you know what to look for, you can detect and reduce research bias.

Example: Social desirability bias

You are doing research into the connection between gaming and drug usage. You request that participants complete a survey detailing their cocaine usage and casino gaming experiences and behaviours. These questions urge participants to acknowledge attitudes, beliefs, or behaviours that may contravene societal standards.

Participants may underestimate how frequently they go to the casinos or take cocaine. That is to say, people may provide socially desired responses to portray a positive picture of themselves or to avoid being seen adversely.

The causes of social desirability bias

There is a possibility of social desirability bias to be induced by the type of the experiment, so it is essential to recall the urge to behave in an appropriate and acceptable cultural manner which is ingrained in humans. Because of this, the only existence of a researcher or other members may induce socially acceptable behaviour.

However, each respondent may have motives for wanting to be regarded in a specific manner (like asking permission or demanding praise). They may also have their imaginations of how others would assess their actions.

Kinds of social desirability bias

Social desirability has two kinds, namely:

• Self-deceptive enhancement (self-deception)
• Impression management (other-deception)

The difference is crucial as it considers two situations (connected to a scenario) and personal (connected to one’s qualities) elements, both of which can lead to socially desirable conduct. Personal variables are more difficult to control than situational determinants, which the researcher can alter. Typically, these are only discovered at the end of the event.

Self-deception enhancement

The self-deception enhancement occurs just as a respondent incorrectly thinks something is true. In this instance, the respondent is not aware of nor intentionally attempting to depict oneself favourably, yet does so.

Example: Self-deception enhancement

Some respondents may be tempted to falsely claim that they always sort and recycle household garbage when asked about their recycling practices.

In this situation, the respondent has created a belief about an acceptable behavior which the researcher or the society at large thinks to be appropriate and wishes to meet the same. In this instance, reprocessing is a “positive” activity. Assuming themselves as a decent individual, the respondents may assume that they reprocess longer than they do.

Other deception

On the other hand, people who engage in impression management are conscious of their overconfident self-assessment and deliberately endeavour to conform to societal or group standards to prevent prejudiced assessment or judgment.

Example: Other deception

A poll asking interviewees how frequently they break laws, an interviewee may claim to commit much or less crime compared to what they have done.

To look strong and experienced, a teenage gang member may acknowledge many more crimes than they committed. In contrast, a teacher may confess to fewer infractions to look compliant.

What is the significance of social desirability bias?

Among all biases, social desirability bias is most prevalent. It results in reporting more socially favourable actions or attitudes and less reporting of socially negative ones. As a result, published results and genuine answers will differ.

In three primary ways, socially acceptable answers might influence results:

• It can produce a misleading connection between variables, making it look like they have a causal link when there is none.
• As a suppressor variable, social desirability can conceal the connections between variables.
• Even if it does not correlate with the independent or dependent variables, social desirability might serve as a moderator variable.

Instances of social desirability biases

Social desirability bias must be considered while determining the most effective study design. Observational research example
You are keen on quantifying incidences of aggression on playgrounds.

You anticipate that youngsters are unlikely to admit to engaging in actions such as beating others if asked directly. It is because they are aware of its non-acceptance from an early age. Likewise, if youngsters are familiar with monitoring their conduct, they would likely alter their behavior.

Considering everything, you conclude that observation is still the most effective strategy, but only if the youngsters are unaware of your presence (called covert observation). Therefore, you intend to observe any instances of striking, kicking, or other aggressive conduct from behind a tree in the playground.

Online survey example

You are researching the non-veg consumption patterns in pupils.

If you interviewed them in groups or individually, your existence or the presence of other respondents would likely elicit socially desirable responses. If students are aware that most of their friends do not eat non-veg, they may be ashamed to disclose that they do, resulting in an underreporting of their non-veg consumption.

You determine that an online survey that guarantees the anonymity of responders is the most appropriate method.

Determine the occurrence of social desirability bias

Sadly, it is sometimes impossible to completely stop or eliminate a social desirability bias in a study. But, it is essential to detect and get hold of the effect of the bias, beginning with the design of your research. The foremost stage is identifying and predicting situations in which bias is most likely to occur.

These may consist of:

• Designs of research, including self-report measurements
• Studies addressing intimate or delicate subject matter
• Situations in which the anonymity of a person is compromised or cannot be ensured
• Situations in which individuals believe that their replies will be evaluated
• Situations in which interviewees and interviewer belong to the same social group

Reducing social desirability bias from the research design

You may employ several tactics to decrease social desirability bias in your research design.

Anonymity: It is essential to ensure the identities of the research participants are safeguarded when inquiring about sensitive issues such as drug abuse or criminal behaviour. If your findings are properly anonymized, you may obtain more candid responses.

Example: anonymity
You conduct interviews with convicted thieves. When transcribing the interviews, you replace the interviewees’ true identities with pseudonyms to ensure their privacy and honesty.

Wording: One should be wary of central questions that sway an interviewee’s response. Words of a questionnaire can elicit a socially desired answer, even if the interviewee does not often reply in this manner.

Example: Wording
Think about the query, “Why is it difficult to diagnose patients through distant learning?”
It may appear to be a fair question, but note that the statement presupposes the diagnosis technique is difficult. Though some interviewees disagree, they may feel compelled to anticipate obstacles to answering the question of how they believe the interviewer desires.

An appropriate question would be, “Enumerate your experiences when learning to diagnose patients via online learning.”

Self-administered questionnaires

Providing interviewees with a chance to complete a set of questions at a time and location when they will not be interrupted by others may result in more honest responses. In addition, as stated previously, the presence of the interviewer or other members may provide individuals with deliberate or accidental clues to respond in a socially preferable way.

Specifically, online questionnaires or surveys are an excellent tool to reduce socially acceptable results. If the interviewer is absent, in this instance, it restricts the utility of self-administered surveys to situations in which the questions are not complicated. One is also restricted to predominantly closed-ended inquiries.

Self-administered survey examples

Assume that you are researching the incidence of AIDS among high school students. Most of the questions on your survey are closed-ended (Did you ever have been diagnosed with AIDS?).

It is natural to worry that allowing students to answer the survey within school premises may prompt a few to conceal dangerous sexual conduct out of concern that friends would look at the responses or inquire about the incident after school hours. However, due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, you can ask them to complete the survey online once they reach their residence.

Indirect questioning

The questioning requires interviewees to address a series of structured questions from the viewpoint of a group or different individual. For example, a common unintended question asks interviewees to estimate how anybody like them might act or think in a certain scenario.

Social desirability bias can be reduced through indirect inquiries. As responders believe they are giving out details about circumstances based on objective facts instead of their judgments, they portray their point of view in the response scenario.

Indirect questioning example

You are examining the impact of friends on undergraduates’ buying choices.

• A straightforward question might be, “How essential it is for me that my friends approve my choice of purchasing product 1?”
• An indirect question would be, “To the average student, it is extremely important/somewhat important/not significant that friends accept their buying of product 1.”

Most individuals are hesitant to accept that friends’ opinions influence their purchasing choices. The propensity to show individuality in the best viable light might cause interviewees to understate the significance of social approbation when explicitly questioned about it. However, giving people indirect questions may elicit their true sentiments.

Choice-based things

Questions which have no options like the forced-choice questions demand the respondent to submit a precise response, with no “nonresponse” options like “not sure,” “don’t know,” “no opinion,” or “not relevant.” Subject to the particular forced-choice design, respondents are made to:

• First, select the thing inside each block that best describes it.
• Next, select the thing that is most and least detailed.
• Finally, provide a complete rating of items within each block of forced choices.

Items with a forced-choice format

If you want to determine if individuals choose to operate as a group or individually, a question like “Can you work in partnership?” will generally generate a socially acceptable response.

You may request that individuals rate several objects with equal social desirability by choice. Let’s look at an instance:

Request you to rank the succeeding potential employment opportunities as per your level of interest.

You have complete control over your performance when assigned to particular tasks.

• Assignment of jobs that need smaller teams, in which the performance of others may impact yours, but which would increase social contact.
• Assignment for duties that demand coordination and cooperation with a large number of other employees, impairing performance but enhancing social connection.

How to identify social acceptability bias

Two approaches may be used to identify and assess social desirability bias:

• Social desirability scales
• Item desirability ratings

Social desirability scales

Several social desirability (SD) scales are being created to detect and quantify socially acceptable answers during data collecting. Among these are the Self-Deception Questionnaire (SDQ), Martin–Larsen Approval Motivation Scale, and the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale.

The above scales consist of several accurate or inaccurate sentences regarding an individual’s views and characteristics. It represents socially desirable yet statistically improbable actions, such as “Before voting, I extensively study all candidates’ qualities.” Each responder is granted a social desirability score based on their responses. Those who concur with these comments will receive a better grade.

After confirming a link with social desirability ratings, three strategies can be employed:

• First, reject the data from participants with very high scores.
• Correct information from top scorers (by applying data of a control group)
• Consider or record in your paper the influence of social desirability bias.

Grading the item’s desirability

On a desirability scale, people are asked to assess the attractiveness of an item (such as a question or a statement). For instance, if “telling a joke” is an item, people are asked to rate the desirability of joking. This rating is assigned to each of the survey questions.

Computing each question’s rating might be troubling if there are many questions since the extent of the questions is virtually doubled.

In place of it, utilizing existing content scales that have been investigated for signs of social desirability bias may help reduce the probability of facing bias in answers.

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