Aufsatz in einer Fachzeitschrift
Determinants for respondents' susceptibility to social desirability bias - A comparison of predictions from rational choice theory and the model of frame-selection
Details zur Publikation
Autor(inn)en: | Stocké, V. |
Publikationsjahr: | 2004 |
Zeitschrift: | Zeitschrift für Soziologie |
Seitenbereich: | 303-320 |
Jahrgang/Band : | 33 |
Erste Seite: | 303 |
Letzte Seite: | 320 |
Seitenumfang: | 18 |
ISSN: | 0340-1804 |
Zusammenfassung, Abstract
Rational choice theory and its generalization in the model of frame-selection both claim to be exhaustive explanations of socially desirable response behavior in surveys, which allows researchers to take the interaction of explanatory factors into account. The determinants predicted in these approaches have been tested only incompletely and, in part, with inconsistent results. The following article analyzes some of the-main hypotheses of both approaches, using responses about attitudes towards ethnic outgroups. In the first step the analysis confirms the predictions from straightforward rational choice theory. Accordingly, socially desirable response behavior only is to be expected when the motivational, cognitive and social preconditions are fulfilled simultaneously. This already very differentiated explanation proved to be incomplete when the additional cultural factors assumed in the model of frame-selection were analyzed in a second step. These determinants for the respondents' tendency toward a "cooperative" framing of the interview permits an identification of those conditions when instrumentally rational incentives are completely eliminated by the factor of social desirability. According to our results the validity of rational choice theory is restricted to important but specific conditions which are predicted in the model of frame-selection.
Rational choice theory and its generalization in the model of frame-selection both claim to be exhaustive explanations of socially desirable response behavior in surveys, which allows researchers to take the interaction of explanatory factors into account. The determinants predicted in these approaches have been tested only incompletely and, in part, with inconsistent results. The following article analyzes some of the-main hypotheses of both approaches, using responses about attitudes towards ethnic outgroups. In the first step the analysis confirms the predictions from straightforward rational choice theory. Accordingly, socially desirable response behavior only is to be expected when the motivational, cognitive and social preconditions are fulfilled simultaneously. This already very differentiated explanation proved to be incomplete when the additional cultural factors assumed in the model of frame-selection were analyzed in a second step. These determinants for the respondents' tendency toward a "cooperative" framing of the interview permits an identification of those conditions when instrumentally rational incentives are completely eliminated by the factor of social desirability. According to our results the validity of rational choice theory is restricted to important but specific conditions which are predicted in the model of frame-selection.
