Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025
09:00
Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
Published on: October 3, 2020
3.9K
Can Forced-Choice Response Format Reduce Faking of Socially Aversive Personality Traits?
Amanda L Y Valone1, Adam W Meade2
1Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, LLC, Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Journal of Personality Assessment
|March 19, 2024
Summary
Researchers tested forced-choice formats to prevent faking personality traits, especially socially aversive ones. Counter to expectations, this method did not reduce response manipulation, even when using best practices.
Area of Science:
- Psychological Measurement
- Personality Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Self-report personality assessments are standard but vulnerable to response manipulation (faking).
- Existing research on reducing faking primarily addresses normative traits (e.g., Five Factor Model), not socially aversive traits.
- Socially aversive traits present unique challenges for accurate measurement due to increased respondent motivation to fake.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effectiveness of the forced-choice response format in reducing faking for socially aversive personality traits.
- To develop and validate new multidimensional forced-choice and single-stimulus measures for socially aversive traits.
- To assess whether established best practices mitigate respondent faking in personality assessments.
Main Methods:
- Development of novel multidimensional forced-choice and single-stimulus measures for socially aversive personality traits.
- Application of the forced-choice format to assess socially aversive traits.
- Instruction for participants to respond as an "ideal job applicant" to simulate faking behavior.
Main Results:
- Participants successfully altered their scores when instructed to fake, indicating susceptibility to response manipulation.
- Contrary to hypotheses, the forced-choice format did not significantly decrease faking behavior.
- The effectiveness of the forced-choice format in preventing faking was not supported, even with adherence to best practices.
Conclusions:
- The forced-choice response format is not a foolproof method for preventing respondent faking in personality assessments, including for socially aversive traits.
- Further research is needed to develop more robust strategies for detecting and mitigating faking in personality measurement.
- Measurement of socially aversive traits requires careful consideration of response formats to ensure validity and reduce potential biases.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Self-Report Tests of Personality
345
Self-report inventories are objective personality assessments that use multiple-choice items or numbered scales, typically ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). They are often called Likert scales after Rensis Likert. These inventories are widely used due to their ease of administration and cost-effectiveness. One of the most prominent examples is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), initially developed in the 1940s to assess abnormal personality traits.
345
02:09Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
37.6K
When we hold a stereotype about a person, we have expectations that he or she will fulfill that stereotype. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. When we hold stereotypes about a person, we tend to treat the person according to our expectations. This treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs. Research by Rosenthal and...
37.6K
01:14Fundamental Attribution Error
12.9K
According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is...
12.9K
01:20Conformity
45.1K
Conformity is the change in a person’s behavior to go along with the group, even if that person does not agree with the group.
45.1K
03:00Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
5.2K
Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
5.2K
02:05Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
39.0K
People can go to great lengths to protect their self-image and present themselves in ways that they want others to see them. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy, Goffman believed that we use “impression management” to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present (Goffman, 1959). Think about...
39.0K