The factors in self-report inventories measuring the five-factor model (FFM) correlate with one another although they theoretically should not. Study 1 showed, across three different FFM-questionnaires, that almost all of the common variance between factors can be attributed to a single general factor related to social desirability. In Study 2, simple rephrasing of items from a FFM-questionnair...

In many countries pension systems involve some form of earnings test; i.e., an invidual’s benefits are reduced if he has labor income. This paper examines whether or not such earning tests emerge when pension system and income tax are optimally designed. We use a simple model with individuals differing both in productivity and their health status. The working life of an individual has two “endi...

Research on achievement goal promotion at University has shown that performanceapproach goals are perceived as a means to succeed at University (high social utility) but are not appreciated (low social desirability). We argue that such a paradox could explain why research has detected that performance-approach goals consistently predict academic grades. First-year psychology students answered a...

It has long been recognized that personality test scores are influenced by non-test-relevant response determinants. Wiggins and Rumrill (1959) distinguish three approaches to this problem. Briefly, interest in the problem of response distortion has been concerned with attempts at statistical correction for "faking good" or "faking bad" (Meehl & Hathaway, 1946), the analysis of response sets (Cr...

The objective of this study was to investigate associations between social desirability response bias and self-report of pain, disability, and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms) in a sample of children presenting to a multidisciplinary pediatric chronic pain clinic. A retrospective review was conducted on 414 consecutive clinic patients, ages 12-17 years, with ch...

Social desirability as a tendency to present oneself in a better light rather than in a truthful manner is common feature presented during job interviews. Previous studies mainly focused on blue-collar professions and therefore authors researched contrary set of white-collar professions in three sub-studies with four different participant groups (legal professions; police officers; controls and...

Insight into the citizenship of students is typically gained via surveys. However, social desirability always plays a role in self-reporting. The relationship between social desirability and citizenship is multi-interpretable. In this article, two views on the divergence and convergence of citizenship and social desirability are presented leading to different assumptions regarding the relations...