Measurement And Social Desirability Response Bias In Experimental Vignette Research: A Test Of Fazio's Mode Theory (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Experimental vignette research methods have been used to study a diverse range of theoretical and practical issues. Vignettes are designed to create hypothetical cultural/normative contexts for the study of variation in self-reported attitudes. A key problem in such research, however, is potential social desirability response bias. OBJECTIVE The objective of the present experiment is to test an explicit theory explaining such bias. METHODS A vignette experimental test of an hypothesis derived from a dual-process theory (the MODE framework initially developed by Fazio) linking explicit vs. implicit self-reported attitude measurement and social desirability response bias is reported here. RESULTS The data show that measuring the social approval of a central vignette character explicitly results in greater social desirability responding than measuring such approval implicitly, supporting MODE theory. CONCLUSIONS Vignette research methodologies provide a rich, flexible toolkit for studying many important social psychological topics, including issues of inequality and equity. However, researchers can and should design a measurement strategy that carefully manages inferences drawn in light of conditions likely to produce social desirability response bias

MEASUREMENT AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS IN EXPERIMENTAL VIGNETTE RESARCH: A TEST OF FAZIO’S MODE THEORY

BACKGROUND. Experimental vignette research methods have been used to study a diverse range of theoretical and practical issues. Vignettes are designed to create hypothetical cultural/normative contexts for the study of variation in self-reported attitudes. A key problem in such research, however, is potential social desirability response bias. METHOD. A vignette experimental test of an hypothesis derived from a dual-process theory (the MODE framework initially developed by Fazio) linking explicit vs. implicit self-reported attitude measurement and social desirability response bias is reported here. RESULTS. The data show that measuring the social approval of a central vignette character explicitly results in greater social desirability responding than measuring such approval implicitly, supporting MODE theory. CONCLUSIONS. Vignette research methodologies provide a rich, flexible toolkit for studying many important social psychological topics, including issues of inequality and equity. However, researchers can and should design a measurement strategy that carefully manages inferences drawn in light of conditions likely to produce social desirability response bias.

MEASUREMENT AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS IN EXPERIMENTAL VIGNETTE RESARCH: A TEST OF FAZIO’S MODE THEORY

BACKGROUND. Experimental vignette research methods have been used to study a diverse range of theoretical and practical issues. Vignettes are designed to create hypothetical cultural/normative contexts for the study of variation in self-reported attitudes. A key problem in such research, however, is potential social desirability response bias. METHOD. A vignette experimental test of an hypothesis derived from a dual-process theory (the MODE framework initially developed by Fazio) linking explicit vs. implicit self-reported attitude measurement and social desirability response bias is reported here. RESULTS. The data show that measuring the social approval of a central vignette character explicitly results in greater social desirability responding than measuring such approval implicitly, supporting MODE theory. CONCLUSIONS. Vignette research methodologies provide a rich, flexible toolkit for studying many important social psychological topics, including issues of inequality and equity. However, researchers can and should design a measurement strategy that carefully manages inferences drawn in light of conditions likely to produce social desirability response bias.

MEASUREMENT AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS IN EXPERIMENTAL VIGNETTE RESARCH: A TEST OF FAZIO’S MODE THEORY

BACKGROUND. Experimental vignette research methods have been used to study a diverse range of theoretical and practical issues. Vignettes are designed to create hypothetical cultural/normative contexts for the study of variation in self-reported attitudes. A key problem in such research, however, is potential social desirability response bias. METHOD. A vignette experimental test of an hypothesis derived from a dual-process theory (the MODE framework initially developed by Fazio) linking explicit vs. implicit self-reported attitude measurement and social desirability response bias is reported here. RESULTS. The data show that measuring the social approval of a central vignette character explicitly results in greater social desirability responding than measuring such approval implicitly, supporting MODE theory. CONCLUSIONS. Vignette research methodologies provide a rich, flexible toolkit for studying many important social psychological topics, including issues of inequality and equity. However, researchers can and should design a measurement strategy that carefully manages inferences drawn in light of conditions likely to produce social desirability response bias.

Online sexual addiction among adult males convicted of a sexual offense

Research has suggested that, in some cases, sexual offending might be a manifestation of an uncontrolled or compulsive online sexual activity, which may be conceptualized as a behavioral addiction. To deal with the lack of validated instruments to assess online sexual addiction, this study tested the psychometric properties of the Online Sexual Addiction Questionnaire (OSA-Q). To this end, a total of 100 men convicted of a sexual offense completed the Spanish version of the OSA-Q, along with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) for the assessment of related areas of impairment. Once individuals with social desirability response bias (n = 34) were extracted from the sample, the exploratory factor analysis yielded a four-factor structure explaining 77.06% of the variance for the OSA-Q. Additionally, internal consistency of the total score was strong (α = .97), and correlations with related clinical scales were significant. Overall, individuals convicted of online sexual offenses showed significantly higher scores on the OSA-Q than contact-exclusive offenders. These results justify the use of the OSA-Q (if accompanied by a valid assessment of social desirability response bias) in the screening of online sexual addiction in Spanish forensic samples, which might, in turn, improve existing risk management plans.

MEASUREMENT AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS IN EXPERIMENTAL VIGNETTE RESEARCH: A TEST OF MODE THEORY

BACKGROUND. Experimental vignette research methods have been used to study a diverse range of theoretical and practical issues. Vignettes are designed to create hypothetical cultural/normative contexts for the study of variation in self-reported attitudes. A key problem in such research, however, is potential social desirability response bias. METHOD. A vignette experimental test of an hypothesis derived from a dual-process theory (the MODE framework) linking explicit vs. implicit self-reported attitude measurement and social desirability response bias is reported here. RESULTS. The data show that measuring the social approval of a central vignette character explicitly results in greater social desirability responding than measuring such approval implicitly, supporting MODE theory. CONCLUSIONS. Vignette research methodologies provide a rich, flexible toolkit for studying important topics in clinical and health psychology. However, researchers can and should design a measurement strategy that carefully manages inferences drawn in light of conditions likely to produce social desirability response bias.

Are Sex Effects on Ethical Decision-Making Fake or Real? A Meta-Analysis on the Contaminating Role of Social Desirability Response Bias

A meta-analysis of 143 studies was conducted to explore how the social desirability response bias may influence sex effects on ratings on measures of ethical decision-making. Women rated themselves as more ethical than did men; however, this sex effect on ethical decision-making was no longer significant when social desirability response bias was controlled. The indirect questioning approach was compared with the direct measurement approach for effectiveness in controlling social desirability response bias. The indirect questioning approach was found to be more effective.