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GOR 2001 - content This is the http://kiwi.uni-psych.gwdg.de/congress/gor-2001/contrib/rodenhausen-thomas/rodenhausen-thomas Document. Main Author: Rodenhausen, Thomas Co-Authors: ; Institution: MediaTransfer Netresearch and Consulting AG, Hamburg Contribution Title: Validity of online obtained self-report data: Social desirability as a means for validation. Authors Email: t.rodenhausen@mediatransfer.de URLs: http://b2b.mediatransfer.de Abstract German (version: 25/06/2002 - 07:47, size: 0) English: In web based surveys two effects are reported frequently: (1) Answers to open ended questions are often more extensive than in studies using telephone interviews to collect data and (2) commercial products and concepts are evaluated more critically compared to data obtained by traditional methods. These findings are sometimes taken as evidence for a superior validity of online obtained results, explained by the assumptions that traditional methods of data collection evoke either a defense against an invasion of privacy or low involvement conditions both leading to distorted or low-contrast results. However, it is difficult to find a gold standard to prove this claim of increased validity. Scales for the measurement of social desirability (e.g. Crowne, D. P. & Marlowe, D., 1960; Paulhus, 1994) are based on the idea that there are individual differences in the (not necessarily conscious) tendency to present a favorable image of oneself and are constructed to control for these individual differences as a distorting factor in self report data. If the hypothesis of increased openness towards online presented questionnaires is correct, lower scores of social desirability should be obtained in online conducted surveys. To test this hypothesis, the recently published Social Desirability Scale-17 (SDS-17; Stöber, 1999) was presented to N=1000 members of an online panel in two conditions: (1) The SDS-17 was presented blockwise to the respondents after they had answered questions susceptible to social desirable responding (e.g. honesty towards insurance companies, attitudes towards environment-friendly cars) and (2) the SDS-17-items were mingled among the other questions. Article preliminary article (version: 25/06/2002 - 07:47, size: 512) view preliminary article - edit preliminary article - upload an image(for authors only)