True virtue, self-presentation, or both?: A behavioral test of impression management and overclaiming

Measures of self-favoring response biases such as impression management (IM) scales or the overclaiming technique (OCT) have been developed to detect distorted self-reports. However, the validity of these approaches has been questioned. In the present study (N = 461), we further examined both IM (assessed by the respective subscale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding [BIDR]) and the OCT as measures of self-favoring response biases and their associations with honesty-humility. Specifically, we tested the 2 competing accounts of IM as a measure of true virtues or a measure of overly positive self-presentation against each other. Using 2 behavioral paradigms, we corroborated recent findings that higher IM scores are associated with higher trait honesty as well as with more honest behavior. At the same time, individuals with high IM scores also presented themselves overly favorably, as IM accounted for discrepancies between hypothetical and actual (incentivized) behavior in a dictator game. Thereby, the present results provide direct evidence for the notion that the IM subscale of the BIDR confounds trait honesty with response bias and thus measures both. In contrast, overclaiming was unrelated to trait honesty, all observed behaviors, and self-presentation, indicating that the OCT is not a valid measure of self-favoring response bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).