Their responses may have been the result of social desirability bias — an aspect of human nature where people who are frequently counselled to take a certain action, like using condoms or brushing their teeth every night, may say they do so when asked, even if they don't.
Simply, peer reports are believed to be more reliable, and less biased by social desirability (the over-estimation of good aspects of one's own behaviour and under-estimation of bad aspects: [ 10]) than self-ratings and, as such, are considered the gold standard for assessment [ 11].
Many authors have argued for the importance of teaching EBM skills during residency training, and several have cited evidence to support the desirability of integrating EBM training with other aspects of the residency program [ 4- 8].
Over half of Americans said the desirability of intergenerational co-residence depends on particularistic aspects of the family, notably the quality of family relationships.
Social desirability bias may have led to under-reporting certain aspects of empowerment, particularly the measures of abuse, and over-reporting participation in prenatal care.
The debate on the ethical aspects of moral bioenhancement focuses on the desirability of using biomedical as opposed to traditional means to achieve moral betterment.
The scale taps into mothers' psychodynamic processes but the questions describe aspects of infant behaviour, so limiting the social desirability response bias [ 22].
Findings provide practical ideas on how to lessen the social desirability bias of this type of questionnaires, whilst prioritising the specific aspects of intercultural competence to be measured.
It is possible that they did not remember all aspects of a case well, and we cannot exclude a social desirability bias, especially for the question of whether or not the physician had reported the case to the review committee.
Yet, as the field is developing, specialization is inevitably increasing apace, and the editors as well as the publisher have become convinced of the desirability for futu're volumes in this series to be organized along topical lines, with successive volumes devoted to different aspects of this rather sprawling field.
