Two mechanisms of biased responding account for the association between religiousness and misrepresentation in Big Five self-reports

Religious individuals in a large community sample were found to exaggerate their level of Agreeableness whereas spiritual individuals exaggerated their degree of Openness. The association between religiousness and overclaiming Agreeableness was mediated not only by socially desirable responding (SDR) but also by personal views of the desirability of Agreeableness: religious individuals saw particular value in Agreeableness, and overclaimed it accordingly. The overclaiming of Openness by spiritual individuals could not be accounted for by SDR, but was partially mediated by spiritual individuals' views of Openness as a particularly desirable trait. Independent ability to explain the association between misrepresentation in self report and both religiousness and spirituality were thus indicated by both SDR and by an approach which expects an individual's overclaiming behavior to match their personal values.