Controlling social desirability may attenuate faking effects: a study with aggression measures
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 11, 2026

Combining Behavioral Endocrinology and Experimental Economics: Testosterone and Social Decision Making
Published on: March 2, 2011
Cristina Anguiano-Carrasco1, Andreu Vigil-Colet, Pere Joan Ferrando
1Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Psicología, Universidad Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain. cristina.anguiano@urv.cat
Background:
Several studies have been conducted to better understand what happens with personality scores when faking occurs, but very few use socially undesirable trait measures such as aggression. The aim of the present research is twofold: (a) we aim to apply a General Factorial-Analytic procedure to aggression scales and determine whether it can correct for faking effects; (b) we aim to test the impact that individual differences can have on change scores due to faking.
Method:
Participants were 371 undergraduate students. Of these, 215 answered the questionnaires twice, under neutral conditions and under faking-motivating conditions. 156 were the control group who answered the questionnaires twice, both times under neutral conditions.
Results:
The mean comparison tests as well as the repeated measures ANOVA showed significant results. Individual differences played an important role in all the scales except in physical aggression.
Conclusions:
The results showed that the procedure does correct for faking effects and that individual differences have an important impact on the change scores due to faking, except in the most undesirable Physical aggression measure, which was hardly affected.
Related Concept Videos
Strategies of Self-Presentation II: Self-Verification
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
Strategies of Self-Presentation I: Strategic Self-Presentation
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Deindividuation
Factors Influencing Attraction II: Physical Attraction

