Although several authors concluded that self-esteem is negatively related to anxiety, it is an open question what role social desirability plays in this relation. In a sample of 61 German students, the correlation between self-esteem and anxiety was significantly reduced from – .59 to – .51 when social desirability was partialed out. Thus, social desirability does seem to inflate the correlation between self-esteem and anxiety when both constructs are measured with self-reports. Yet, this effect of social desirability appears so small that it is probably negligible for most research purposes.
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