Social desirability bias
People answer to look good, not to tell the truth.
What it means
A systematic response tendency in which people present themselves favorably, over-reporting socially approved attitudes and behaviors and under-reporting disapproved ones. It threatens the validity of self-report on sensitive topics — voting, charity, prejudice, drug use, sexual behavior, and health habits — by inflating the 'virtuous' answers. Two components are distinguished: impression management, a deliberate effort to look good to others, and self-deceptive enhancement, an honest but inflated self-view. The bias is reduced by anonymity, indirect questioning, the bogus-pipeline technique, forced-choice formats, and validated scales such as the Marlowe–Crowne. It is a central concern in survey design, polling, and any research relying on what people say about themselves.
Examples
Far more survey respondents claim to vote, recycle, and donate than official records show actually do.
Patients asked aloud by their doctor how much they drink report a tidier number than the same patients typing the answer into an anonymous tablet in the waiting room.
An engagement survey run by the manager comes back glowing; the same team's anonymous exit interviews, months later, describe a very different place to work.
First described in Edwards (1957); Crowne & Marlowe (1960).
Where this comes up
- Response Bias in Surveys: A Behavioral Science PerspectiveSurvey responses aren't always accurate. Learn about the most common types of response bias, why they occur, and practi…