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Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: An Exploratory Pilot Study of the Relationships Between Social Desirability, Honesty, and Self-Reported Past Behaviour in the Context of Big Five Personality Research

Zdilar, Ida LU (2026) PSYP01 20261
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Contemporary efforts made toward creating a personality inventory free of the evaluative method variance, partially explained by social desirability, used the evaluative neutralisation method (Bäckström & Björklund, 2013; 2020; Bäckström et al., 2009; 2014; 2023). However, recent developments in the interpretation of the social desirability bias seem to suggest that there is perhaps reason to consider keeping said variance, as there appears to be some truth behind the alleged bias — SDR seems to both correlate positively with HEXACO’s Honesty-Humility and improve criterion validity of personality inventories. The present exploratory pilot study ventured to construct a trait honesty measure and examine if it would disprove of the view of... (More)
Contemporary efforts made toward creating a personality inventory free of the evaluative method variance, partially explained by social desirability, used the evaluative neutralisation method (Bäckström & Björklund, 2013; 2020; Bäckström et al., 2009; 2014; 2023). However, recent developments in the interpretation of the social desirability bias seem to suggest that there is perhaps reason to consider keeping said variance, as there appears to be some truth behind the alleged bias — SDR seems to both correlate positively with HEXACO’s Honesty-Humility and improve criterion validity of personality inventories. The present exploratory pilot study ventured to construct a trait honesty measure and examine if it would disprove of the view of SDR as method variance and instead explain the substance of SDR by association, as well as if said measure would moderate the prediction of socially desirable behaviour based on SDR. An online sample (N = 299) was presented with a battery of tests needed to answer these research questions. I confirmed the existence of the evaluative factor, explained partially by SDR, within the traditional IPIP personality inventory. I also managed to predict socially desirable behaviour based on socially desirable responding. However, failure to find the moderation effect of honesty on the relationship between socially desirable responding and socially desirable behaviour steered future research in other directions, based on previous research — namely towards morality. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Zdilar, Ida LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYP01 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
personality psychology, evaluative neutralisation, evaluative factor, honesty, social desirability, socially desirable behaviour
language
English
id
9250664
date added to LUP
2026-09-11 14:20:00
date last changed
2026-09-11 14:20:00
@misc{9250664,
  abstract     = {{Contemporary efforts made toward creating a personality inventory free of the evaluative method variance, partially explained by social desirability, used the evaluative neutralisation method (Bäckström & Björklund, 2013; 2020; Bäckström et al., 2009; 2014; 2023). However, recent developments in the interpretation of the social desirability bias seem to suggest that there is perhaps reason to consider keeping said variance, as there appears to be some truth behind the alleged bias — SDR seems to both correlate positively with HEXACO’s Honesty-Humility and improve criterion validity of personality inventories. The present exploratory pilot study ventured to construct a trait honesty measure and examine if it would disprove of the view of SDR as method variance and instead explain the substance of SDR by association, as well as if said measure would moderate the prediction of socially desirable behaviour based on SDR. An online sample (N = 299) was presented with a battery of tests needed to answer these research questions. I confirmed the existence of the evaluative factor, explained partially by SDR, within the traditional IPIP personality inventory. I also managed to predict socially desirable behaviour based on socially desirable responding. However, failure to find the moderation effect of honesty on the relationship between socially desirable responding and socially desirable behaviour steered future research in other directions, based on previous research — namely towards morality.}},
  author       = {{Zdilar, Ida}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: An Exploratory Pilot Study of the Relationships Between Social Desirability, Honesty, and Self-Reported Past Behaviour in the Context of Big Five Personality Research}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}