Social-Desirability-Score – Evaluation of the social desirability (not part of the ReDem®-Score)

Estimated reading: 2 minutes

In this article, we explain everything you need to know about the Social Desirability Score (SDS), which can be used to detect social desirability bias.

How the Social-Desirability-Score works

The SDS compares each response option to the actual distribution of responses to determine if the collective projection of respondents who voted for that option is higher. If the collective projection is lower than the actual distribution, the option is considered socially desirable and receives a low score.
In order to use the Social-Desirability-Score, projective question sets must be added to the questionnaire.
The figure below shows three response options, two of which are classified as socially desirable. The bars are color-coded according to the traffic light system (green = no social desirability, yellow = moderate social desirability, red = high social desirability).

Collective responses are used

Like the Information-Scorethe Social-Desirability-Score assesses collective response behavior, rather than individual respondents.
The SDS is therefore not a classic quality criterion, not part of the ReDem®-Score and does not influence the data cleaning process.
Accordingly, only the weighting function should be applied to the SDS.

The False Consensus Effect

Like the Certainty Score (CS), the SDS is also based on the so-called False Consensus Effect. The false consensus effect describes an unconscious effect according to which people overestimate the frequency of their own opinion or attitude.

SDS and IS cannot be combined

It is important to note that the Information-Score and the Social-Desirability-Score cannot be used in the same question. This is because the SDS cannot be used for questions with information differences (e.g. knowledge questions, purchase intentions). These types of questions cannot be processed by the SDS.

Tips for use

Sensitive questions where socially desirable response behaviour may occur.
Applying the question-level weighting function to reduce social desirability bias.

If you have any further questions about the Social Desirability Score, please contact us at business@redem.io