Social Desirability Bias

Abstract

The use of surveys in higher education for assessment and accreditation purposes is steadily increasing,and institutions must provide a variety of evidence on their effectiveness (Kuh & Ewell, 2010). While surveys are a relatively easy means of gathering a large amount of data, the use of self‐reports sometimes leads to concerns about the data quality. If there is the potential that certain items will prompt untruthful answers as respondents attempt to provide a socially appropriate response, researchers may want to examine whether social desirability bias is present in the data (DeVellis, 2003). This bias can impact interpretations of survey results, as well as the design of future data collection and analysis. Although encouraging student engagement is not what one might consider a “sensitive” topic, faculty may be aware that answering items in ways that display higher levels of engagement is desired by their institutions and they want to appear to be “good” employees. Therefore, the current study was developed to address the issue of social desirability bias and self‐reported engagement behaviors at the faculty level.