Individual differences in perceived social desirability of openness to experience: A new framework for social desirability responding in personality research

The extent to which response distortion - such as social desirability responding (SDR) - is present in self-report measures is an issue of concern and debate in personality research, as it may seriously impact such measures' psychometric indices. The present research aimed at using the social value framework to shed new light on SDR in self-report personality tests. Two studies tested the moderating role of individual differences in perceived social desirability of the Openness to Experience dimension for test-retest reliability and predictive validity of a typical Openness measure. Results support the hypothesized moderating role of perceived social desirability for improving test-retest reliability, providing the testing condition guarantees full anonymity (Study 1), and for predictive validity (Study 2). Findings are discussed with regards to SDR in personality research and the social value framework.