An indigenous measure of social desirability across western and non-Western countries

P. 1–12.

Dominguez Espinosa A., He J., Rosabal-Coto M., Harb C., Benitez Baena I., Acosta T., Estrada C., Barrios C., van de Vijver F., Velasco Matus P. W.

Cross-cultural differences in Social Desirability (SD) could be partly due to the nonequivalence of constructs, items, or other challenges of cross-cultural research. We tested to what extent a Mexican, indigenous scale of SD, capturing both positive and negative features of SD, would be useful in other countries. Data were collected in convenience samples in eight countries (Argentina, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Lebanon, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Spain) in order to test the psychometric accuracy and invariance of the factor structure. Values of Tucker’s factor congruence coefficients (gauging invariance) and tests of the similarity of the cross-country similarity of Cronbach’s alpha (gauging internal consistency) revealed that SD, as measured by this indigenous list, is stable and comparable across cultures. The results are interpreted in a conceptual framework in which SD is viewed as a culturally embedded communication style that people use to integrate successfully into their groups

Keywords: social desirability, Tucker’s Phi, communication style

In book

Venture into cross-cultural psychology: Proceedings from the 23rd Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.

IACCP, 2018.