Are social desirability scales desirable? A meta‐analytic test of the validity of social desirability scales in the context of prosocial behavior

Lanz, Lukas; Thielmann, Isabel; Gerpott, Fabiola H.

doi:10.1111/jopy.12662

Cited by 33 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…However, we did not find any evidence for this proposition in the present studies. Fur ther, the link between social desirability and prosocial behavior was more substantial and more consistent in the current studies than the effects reported in a recent meta-analysis (Lanz et al, 2022), suggesting that the employed measures assessed socially desirable traits (and not social desirability bias) as discussed by Lanz and colleagues (2022). On the other hand, we did not find a statistically significant correlation between social desirability and crying proneness (Supplementary Table 10).…”

Section: Crying Proneness and Moral Judgments And Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 85%

Only the good cry: Investigating the relationship between crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior

Zickfeld¹,

Kamble²,

Oostelbos³

et al. 2022

Soc. Psychol. Bull.

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People cry for various reasons and in numerous situations, some involving highly moral aspects such as altruism or moral beauty. At the same time, criers have been found to be evaluated as more morally upright—they are perceived as more honest, reliable, and sincere than non-criers. The current project provides a first comprehensive investigation to test whether this perception is adequate. Across six studies sampling Dutch, Indian, and British adults (N = 2325), we explored the relationship between self-reported crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior, employing self-report measures and actual behavior assessments. Across all studies, we observed positive correlations of crying proneness with moral judgments (r = .27 [.17, .38]) and prosocial behavioral tendencies and behaviors (r = .20 [.12, .28]). These associations held in three (moral judgment) or two (prosocial tendencies and behaviors) out of five studies when controlling for other important variables. Thus, the current project provides first evidence that crying is related to moral evaluation and behavior, and we discuss its importance for the literature on human emotional crying.

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Section: Crying Proneness and Moral Judgments And Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 85%

Only the good cry: Investigating the relationship between crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior

Zickfeld¹,

Kamble²,

Oostelbos³

et al. 2022

Soc. Psychol. Bull.

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“…We were unable to consider faking indices for self-reports because such validated indices are missing. Lie scales have come under heavy criticism (e.g., De Vries et al, 2014 ; Lanz et al, 2021 ; Uziel, 2010 ), and even the scale’s authors strongly advise against the use of lie scales to detect faking (e.g., Borkenau & Ostendorf, 2008 ). Faking indices for IATs were created on the basis of recommendations from prior research (see Agosta et al, 2011 ; Cvencek et al, 2010 ; Röhner et al, 2013 ; Röhner & Thoss, 2018 ).…”

Section: Analytic Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Lying on the Dissection Table: Anatomizing Faked Responses

2022

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Research has shown that even experts cannot detect faking above chance, but recent studies have suggested that machine learning may help in this endeavor. However, faking differs between faking conditions, previous efforts have not taken these differences into account, and faking indices have yet to be integrated into such approaches. We reanalyzed seven data sets (N = 1,039) with various faking conditions (high and low scores, different constructs, naïve and informed faking, faking with and without practice, different measures [self-reports vs. implicit association tests; IATs]). We investigated the extent to which and how machine learning classifiers could detect faking under these conditions and compared different input data (response patterns, scores, faking indices) and different classifiers (logistic regression, random forest, XGBoost). We also explored the features that classifiers used for detection. Our results show that machine learning has the potential to detect faking, but detection success varies between conditions from chance levels to 100%. There were differences in detection (e.g., detecting low-score faking was better than detecting high-score faking). For self-reports, response patterns and scores were comparable with regard to faking detection, whereas for IATs, faking indices and response patterns were superior to scores. Logistic regression and random forest worked about equally well and outperformed XGBoost. In most cases, classifiers used more than one feature (faking occurred over different pathways), and the features varied in their relevance. Our research supports the assumption of different faking processes and explains why detecting faking is a complex endeavor.

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“…From ancient times, Chinese society has expected teachers to be proactive and to go out of their way to help students. According to the social desirability theory, excellent interpersonal desirability will promote individuals’ careers to shape the corresponding self-belief and self-requirement ( Carlo et al, 1991 ; Braun et al, 2001 ; Lalwani et al, 2006 ; Wanat et al, 2020 ; Lanz et al, 2022 ). Consequently, the expectation of Chinese society that teachers should actively assist students will motivate teachers to meet and maintain this social expectation throughout their academic and professional careers ( Xuan, 2006 ; Li, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control

Li²,

Yang³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Empathy and altruistic behavior are more crucial abilities for pre-service teachers to possess when compared with other study fields. The relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior in Chinese pre-service teachers and their underlying mechanisms, however, has received relatively little attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the links between study fields (i.e., pre-service teachers whose study field is pedagogy and non-pre-service teachers whose study field is non-pedagogy), self-control, emotional empathy (i.e., empathic concern), and altruistic preferences among undergraduates and graduates in five Chinese universities (the age range of participants is 18–20 years; 58.4% women) with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Questionnaire, the Self-Control Scale, and the Chinese Self-Report Altruism Scale tests. The results showed a significant difference between pre-service and non-pre-service teachers in empathic concern and self-control. Furthermore, empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency of pre-service teachers were significantly higher than those of non-pre-service teachers. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that empathic concern partially mediated the relationship between study fields and altruistic tendency. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that self-control buffered the relation between empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency. These results demonstrate that altruistic tendency of pre-service teachers is influenced by empathic concern and self-control.

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Are social desirability scales desirable? A meta‐analytic test of the validity of social desirability scales in the context of prosocial behavior

Abstract: Socially desirable responding (SDR)-the tendency to present oneself overly positive and downplay negative attributes-has frequently been discussed as an issue hampering the validity and interpretation of self-reports (e.g.,

Cited by 33 publications

References 118 publications

Only the good cry: Investigating the relationship between crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior

Only the good cry: Investigating the relationship between crying proneness and moral judgments and behavior

Lying on the Dissection Table: Anatomizing Faked Responses

Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control

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