Effects of Self-Deception, Social Desirability, and Repressive Coping on Psychophysiological Reactivity to Stress

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between psychophysiological reactivity to stress and three measures of defensiveness (self-deception, social desirability, and repressive coping). Physiological and psychological responses were recorded while subjects engaged in two consecutive, difficult mental arithmetic tasks. As expected, individuals high in self-deception appraised an upcoming novel mental arithmetic task as less threatening and were less psychophysiologically reactive during the task than low self-deceivers. In contrast, there were no effects for social desirability on task appraisal, but individuals high in social desirability were more physiologically reactive during the task. There were no effects for repressive coping, operationalized using a social desirability/anxiety typology, that were not accounted for by social desirability alone. The possible mechanisms underlying these effects are discussed.