A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Social Desirability Variable

Abstract

College students from India and the United States rated a set of 42 personality statements on a nine-point scale ranging from extremely socially desirable to extremely socially undesirable. These ratings were found to be similar not only for subjects from distinct linguistic regions within India but also for subjects from India and the United States. The relationship between ratings of social desirability of personality statements and the probability of endorsement of the same statements was also observed to be quite similar across the two cultures.