Biasing Effect of Respondents' Identification on Responses to a Social Desirability Scale: A Warning to Researchers

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.