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ASKING FOR A FRIEND Abby Person
Perhaps one of the most overlooked and revealing of psychological questionnaires is the “Two-Component Models of Socially Desirable Responding.” Researchers use this measure when they want to identify participants who will say anything to be liked. The logic behind scales that measure socially desirable bias is that humans universally engage in behaviors that we all deny doing, like taking sick leave when we aren’t really sick, or voting for candidates we know little about, and that while the average participant will admit to these behaviors in the context of an anonymous questionnaire, socially desirable responders will be unable to admit to doing these things because they need to be liked and approved. In essence, this measure is trying to identify the people-pleasers. The thing is, in writing these questions researchers are admitting what they do, too. So, instead of having only a vague image of the creator of this measure as a gray-haired and glasses-wearing professor or an aloof researcher in a lab coat, I now know that they may lie about being sick and doubt their sexual adequacy. And I wonder, if I were to write my own measure of social desirability, what items would I include? It might look something like this. 1. Do you ever steal two slices of bread from your roommate when you discover that your own has turned frosty blue with mold and proceed to make yourself feel better about the theft by telling yourself that five months ago she ate your Trader Joe’s microwavable quiche thinking it was her own and never replaced it even though she said she would? 2. Do you ever find a way to work in a story about cleaning the sink the other day, including details of the brown sludge that had worked itself into drains and spigots, in the hope that your dirty roommate will get the hint and clean something already?
