Buffers items, insight, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

Area of Science:

• Psychological Measurement
• Social Psychology
• Personality Assessment

Background:

• Social desirability bias can influence self-report measures.
• The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC) is a widely used measure.
• The potential impact of extraneous items (buffer items) on scale responses is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of intermixed buffer items (extraversion and neuroticism) on Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC) responses.
• To determine if the placement of buffer items influences the validity or reliability of the MC scale.

Main Methods:

• College student participants were randomly assigned to two conditions.
• Condition 1: MC scale items were intermixed with extraversion and neuroticism items.
• Condition 2: MC scale items were presented separately from extraversion and neuroticism items.
• MC scale scores were compared between the two conditions.

Main Results:

• No significant difference was found in MC scale means between the intermixed and separate conditions.
• Confidence interval analysis indicated a negligible effect of buffer items on MC scores.
• Awareness of the MC scale's purpose was low and unrelated to the buffer item manipulation.

Conclusions:

• The use of intermixed extraversion and neuroticism items as buffer items does not appear to significantly influence responses on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale.
• Findings suggest that the MC scale's measurement properties are robust to this type of buffer item manipulation.
• Further research may be needed to explore other potential influences on social desirability responding.