No Introduction Necessary: Face-saving Answer Options Outperform Preambles in Reducing Social Desirability Bias

We also included face-saving response options using degrees of truth (“occasionally”) or justifications for norm transgressions (e.g., “only when there was no other option”). There were three objectives. First, the design included a replication of a face-saving study regarding COVID-19, where we assessed the efficacy of a condition that combined a face-saving preamble with face-saving answer options (N=303) against a control condition without any face-saving elements (N=284).

Second, we extended the replication’s design by including conditions to measure the effects of offering face-saving preambles (N=281) and offering face-saving answer options in isolation (N=283). Third, we investigated the effectiveness of face-saving using novel operationalizations on additional topics, including sustainability and responsible driving. The replication confirmed the effectiveness of the combined face-saving strategy.

The extension that included all conditions (Ntotal=1151), revealed that offering face-saving answer options reduced SDB significantly, up to 23%. There was no main effect of including a preamble, nor was there an interaction effect of the two manipulations. These findings highlight the critical role that face-saving response options might play in improving the accuracy of self-reported data, while calling into question the usefulness of including face-saving preambles.