Exploring the empirical evidence of social desirability bias (SDB) in sport consumer research

The current study aims to provide a systematic approach to detecting and identifying social desirability bias (SDB) in survey data using controversial sponsorship as a research context.

We used an experimental approach to manipulate sponsorship situations (e.g. Beer sponsor vs Sports drink sponsor) that could potentially motivate respondents to under-report their perceptions toward the sponsor. By employing both procedural and statistical approaches, our evidence shows that responses toward the controversial sponsor were in fact contaminated by SDB.

The findings of the study provide methodological and practical implications for how sport marketing scholars and practitioners can identify, detect and control SDB in self-report data.

We argue that some survey research in sport marketing may be prone to SDB, but SDB has not received sufficient attention in sport marketing research. We emphasize the importance of detecting (and avoiding/controlling) SDB in sport management research.