The relationship between the judged desirability of a trait and the probability that the trait will be endorsed

Abstract

The study was designed to measure the relationship between probability of endorsement of personality items and the scaled social desirability of the items. Scale values were determined by applying the method of successive intervals to 140 personality trait items which had been administered to 152 subjects with pertinent instructions. The items were then administered to a different group of 140 students as a personality inventory. The proportion of "yes" answers was taken as a measure of the probability of endorsement and correlated against the social desirability scale value for the items. The high degree of relationship ( r = .871) is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)