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Social desirability is a response set in which the participant
responds to
research tasks according to his or her beliefs
about what is the most desirable
behavior. Essentially, it is
the tendency to put oneself in the best possible
light, to look
good for the researchers. This tendency can interfere with the
participants’ responses to the experimental manipulations of the
researcher;
it can over-ride the intent of the research. Thus,
social desirability response
sets create inaccuracies and
increase measurement error. Indeed, any type of
response
set is likely to increase measurement error.