Why Does Social Desirability Happen?

Social desirability bias occurs when the topic of the survey or interview is a sensitive one. The respondents will give a socially accepted answer because the matter is too sensitive for them so, they don't want to reveal their true feelings about it.

What is the meaning of social desirability?

Social desirability is the tendency for people to present themselves in a generally favorable fashion. Particularly within the field of self-report assessment of personality and attitudes, the topic of social desirability has been and remains the source of long-standing and sometimes acrimonious argument.

Why is social desirability a concern for researchers?

Social desirability is often recognized as a bias that creates problems for research and for applied measurement. Most directly, social desirability can compromise the validity of scores on a measure. ... For example, a researcher wishes to measure participants' self-esteem by using a self-report questionnaire.