Social Desirability

The Nature of Social Desirability

Seeming simple at first glance, social desirability has a rather complex nature. There are at least two important issues concerning the nature of social desirability. The first issue is its psychological content—the number and nature of the psychological dimensions likely to be affected by social desirability. Early research focused on a single psychological dimension—the need for approval from others—as the basis of social desirability. That is, early work focused on the general tendency to claim or demonstrate desirable characteristics and deny or conceal undesirable characteristics (i.e., to claim an uncommon degree of virtue and deny a common degree of vice). More recent work, most notably research conducted by Del Paulhus and his colleagues, has highlighted two dimensions of social desirability—an egoistic dimension reflecting the exaggeration of traits such as competence, dominance, and intelligence, and a moralistic dimension reflecting the exaggeration of traits such as friendliness, impulse control, and responsibility.

A second issue concerning the nature of social desirability is intentionality. Although socially desirable behavior is sometimes conscious and intentional, it also can be unconscious or unintentional. Impression management occurs when people intentionally exaggerate socially desirable qualities (or intentionally deny socially undesirable qualities). Self-deception occurs when people unintentionally exaggerate such qualities. That is, self-deception occurs when people truly but inaccurately believe that they have more desirable qualities than they actually have. This issue is closely related to a common terminological distinction between response sets and response styles. Although researchers are inconsistent in using these terms, a response set is a temporary tendency toward social desirability (e.g., impression management that occurs while completing a job application), and a response style is an enduring tendency for some people to respond in a socially desirable manner (e.g., a stable disposition for some people to view themselves in an overly positive light).

What Produces Social Desirability

Several factors affect socially desirable behavior. First, some people might be predisposed toward socially desirable behavior. Such people are said to have a socially desirable response style, behaving in a socially desirable way in many kinds of research settings.

A second factor affecting social desirability is the behavioral characteristic being examined in a given study. That is, some behavioral characteristics are more likely to elicit socially desirable behavior than are others. For example, some traits, behaviors, or attitudes are particularly valued, stigmatized, or otherwise sensitive (e.g., mental health, racial attitudes, sexual practices, drug use, morality, and general psychological adjustment). When such characteristics are measured and/or observed, participants’ responses are relatively likely to be affected by social desirability. For example, whether they are intentionally attempting to present an image consistent with common social norms or they are unintentionally failing to recognize their true nature, some people might claim racial tolerance when they are, in fact, racially intolerant.

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