Social Desirability,Endorsement and Judged Frequency of Occurrence on the Items from Four Social Desirability Scales

Abstract

The usual positive relationship between the social desirability of traits and the proportion of the group endorsing the traits was found on items from 3 of 4 social desirability scales. However, judged frequency of occurrence of the traits was positively related to endorsement on the items from all 4 scales. Partialling out judged frequency of occurrence resulted in a reduced relationship between social desirability and endorsement when the group of items had a positive relationship between social desirability and judged frequency of occurrence. Computer simulation estimated that a considerable component of an individual's social desirability score could be due to how many of the traits which characterized the individual were included in each scale.