Mitigating the Effects of Social Desirability Bias in Self-Report Surveys

Abstract

Self-reporting is a frequently used method to measure various constructs in many areas of social science research. Literature holds abundant evidence that social desirability bias (SDB), which is a special kind of response bias, can severely plague the validity and accuracy of the self-report survey measurements. However, in many areas of behavioral research, there is little or no alternative to self-report surveys for collecting data about specific constructs that only the respondents may have the information about. Thus, researchers need to detect or minimize SDB to improve the quality of overall data and their deductions drawn from them. Literature provides a number of techniques for minimizing SDB during survey procedure and statistical measurement methods to detect and minimize the validity-destructive impact of SDB. This study aims to explicate the classical and new techniques for mitigating the SDB and to provide a guideline for the researchers, especially for those who focus on socially sensitive constructs.