Empirical evidence suggests that respondents systematically overreport socially desirable behaviors and systematically underreport socially undesirable behaviors. This “social desirability response bias (SDRB)” presents significant challenges for research that relies on self-report measures to assess behaviors that adhere to or violate social norms. The present study used a state-of-the-art polygraph system to examine SDRB in widely used aggression questionnaires, including the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire-Short Form, the Indirect Aggression subscale of the Aggression Questionnaire by Western Psychological Services, and the Reactive–Proactive Questionnaire. Sixteen college students with no criminal record, no known prior history of aggressive behavior, and no reported drug abuse, responded to verbally administered forms of the instruments. Indirect aggression items produced the largest, statistically significant physiological response across the sampled channels. The magnitude of this response was negatively and significantly correlated with the self-report ratings of the frequency of such behaviors. The mean separation between physiological (skin conductance) and self-report responses for indirect aggression remained significant and consistent with correlational analyses when both types of responses were converted to the same scale and compared directly. Finally, the relative magnitude of skin conductance response for items assessing indirect aggression was significantly greater than the relative magnitude of skin conductance response for direct aggression. Overall, the study suggests that the use of automated state-of-the art polygraph systems may potentially identify sensitive items on self-report instruments where social responsibility response bias is possible. Implications for the use of this procedure with such instruments are discussed.

中文翻译：

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使用测谎仪系统评估自我报告测评中的社会期望反应偏见。

经验证据表明，受访者系统性地夸大了社会上想要的行为，而系统地低估了社会上不想要的行为。这种“社会期望反应偏差（SDRB）”给依靠自我报告措施来评估遵守或违反社会规范的行为的研究提出了重大挑战。本研究使用最先进的测谎仪系统来检查广泛使用的侵害性调查表中的SDRB，包括Buss-Perry侵略性调查表-短表格，西方心理学服务部的侵略性调查表的间接侵害子量表和反应式–主动问卷。16名没有犯罪记录，没有已知的侵略行为既往史，也没有举报吸毒的大学生对口头管理的文书形式做出了回应。间接攻击项目在整个采样通道中产生了最大的，统计学上显着的生理反应。这种反应的程度与此类行为的频率的自我报告评分呈负相关且显着相关。当两种类型的反应都转换为相同规模并直接比较时，间接攻击的生理（皮肤电导）和自我报告反应之间的平均间隔仍然很明显，并且与相关分析一致。最后，评估间接攻击的项目的皮肤电导反应的相对幅度明显大于直接攻击的皮肤电导反应的相对幅度。总体而言，该研究表明，使用自动化的最新测谎仪系统可能会在自我报告工具上识别出可能引起社会责任回应偏差的敏感项目。讨论了将这种程序与此类仪器配合使用的含义。