Using Construal Level Theory to Deter the Social Desirability Bias

The social desirability bias is the tendency of respondents to adjust their responses or behavior in such a way as to present themselves in socially acceptable terms. The systematic bias introduced by the social desirability bias threatens the legitimacy of empirical research by confounding a phenomenon of interest with impression management behavior, thus obscuring research results and potentially triggering false conclusions. When the social desirability bias is a concern (e.g., when asking socially sensitive, embarrassing, or private questions), researchers commonly use techniques such as indirect questioning to avoid this bias. By asking respondents how most or the typical person would respond (i.e, referring to a third party target) the respondent transcends from an egocentric focus on his or her own unflattering attitudes or behavior onto that of an ambiguous target. Given the target's indistinctness respondents project their own feelings, attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs when responding while remaining psychologically distanced from the true, yet socially undesirable response.;According to construal level theory this process of "transcendence " is possible because individuals are able to form abstract mental construals (Trope and Liberman 2010). This mental construal process is essential to recalling the past, empathizing with others, and visualizing future events. We propose that when presented with an indirect question, respondents increase their mental construal to project a response onto the third party target. As mental construals increase, individuals refocus from detailed, incidental features to central, fundamental characteristics (Trope and Liberman 2010). Consequently, we propose that indirect questioning prompts respondents to deemphasize the contextual demand to engage in impression management behavior by increasing construal levels.;This research serves three primary purposes. First, we propose construal level theory as a theoretical explanation for indirection questioning. Second, we explore how psychological distances and construal level effectively reduce social desirability bias. Lastly, we test our theoretical model within a consumer choice context including sustainable products. We integrate construal level theory with projective measurement theory, thus extending knowledge in both domains.;In Study 1, we investigate the association of seven commonly used marketing scales with measures of socially desirable responding. As a preliminary demonstration that increasing construal levels decreases the social desirability bias, we manipulate the psychological distance of these scales to reduce their association with socially desirable responding measures. Results indicate that whereas indirect questioning increasing social or spatial distance reduces the association with desirable responding measures, indirect questioning increasing temporal distance magnifies this association. Study 2 further investigates the relationship between construal level and the social desirability bias through a product choice task involving sustainable and non-sustainable product option. Results indicate that increasing construal levels in an ostensibly unrelated task subsequently increases the likelihood that consumers will select the non-sustainable product. In Study 3, we extend these findings by exploring the mechanism explaining the relationship between psychological distance and impression management behavior. We find that when demand biases are present, increasing the psychological distance of the choice task reduces impression management, consequently increasing the share of choice for the functionally superior, yet environmentally inferior product option.