Ethnic Differences in Social Desirability Bias: Effects on the Analysis of Public Service Motivation

• Author: Sangmook Kim,Seung Hyun Kim
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X15605147
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2017, Vol. 37(4) 472 –491

© The Author(s) 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X15605147

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Article

Ethnic Differences in Social

Desirability Bias: Effects

on the Analysis of Public

Service Motivation

Seung Hyun Kim1 and Sangmook Kim1

Abstract

Public service motivation (PSM) research heavily relies on self-report measures that are

often susceptible to social desirability bias (SDB). Cultural orientation is also correlated

with SDB. This study explores the ethnic differences in socially desirable responding

when measuring PSM and job satisfaction in a multicultural but individualistic society

like the United States. It tests the magnitude and pattern of SDB in measurements of

PSM in this society as a whole, as well as the influence of ethnicity on SDB. The results

of our experimental survey research show that SDB is significantly correlated with PSM

measures, as well as job satisfaction. We therefore expect a spurious effect to occur

in the correlational analysis. This implies that the correlation between job satisfaction

and PSM is at least partly spurious due to measurement artifacts. Alternative ways to

measure PSM need to be explored to control SDB.

Keywords

social desirability bias, ethnic differences, public service motivation, job satisfaction,

self-report questionnaires

Introduction

Uncovering information about unobservable attributes, such as beliefs, among respon-

dents is difficult. Self-report questionnaires are the most frequently used tool in social

science research for these types of hidden attributes due to their simplicity and conve-

nience (Fisher, 1993). Self-reporting, however, is often susceptible to the respondents’

1Seoul National University of Science & Technology, Republic of Korea

Corresponding Author:

Sangmook Kim, Department of Public Administration, Seoul National University of Science & Technology,

232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-743, Republic of Korea.

Email: smook@seoultech.ac.kr

605147ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X15605147Review of Public Personnel AdministrationKim and Kim

research-article2015

Kim and Kim 473

tendencies to answer in a more socially acceptable way, instead of expressing their

true feelings—a phenomenon known as social desirability bias (SDB; Ganster,

Hennessey, & Luthans, 1983; Zerbe & Paulhus, 1987). There is a strong possibility

when answering sensitive questions that respondents will provide socially desirable

responses rather than their actual opinion. In the field of Public Administration,

questionnaire items on public service motivation (PSM) should be regarded as sensi-

tive because respondents may know which answers are more socially acceptable.

The theory and previous research suggest that cultural orientation is one factor

influencing socially desirable responses, and both individualism and collectivism

might be associated with SDB, although in different ways (Bernardi, 2006; Crowne &

Marlow, 1964; Lalwani, Shavitt, & Johnson, 2006; Lalwani, Shrum, & Chiu, 2009).

S. H. Kim and Kim (2013) have recently investigated whether the characteristics of a

national culture have any influence on SDB in the context of surveys on PSM. An

experimental survey research (list experiment) was conducted to examine the magni-

tude of SDB and its implications for the national cultures of four countries: Japan,

Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States. The findings revealed that respondents

in both collectivistic countries (Japan and Korea) and individualistic countries (the

Netherlands and the United States) are likely to over-report answers on items of PSM,

although the magnitude and pattern of the bias were stronger and more consistent in

the collectivistic countries. The study, however, used only a sample of West European

Americans in the case of the United States.

It remains unknown, however, whether and to what extent PSM measurement is

distorted by SDB in the United States (Bright, 2005; Naff & Crum, 1999; Stazyk,

2013). The culture of the United States is primarily Western but multicultural. This is

because it is an ethnically and racially diverse country, as a result of large-scale migra-

tion from many ethnically and racially different countries throughout its history. The

general conclusion from the previous research is that respondents from collectivistic

cultures display more SDB than those from individualist societies. The next step then

is to explore the influence of different ethnicities on the SDB in a multicultural but

individualistic society like the United States. The racial and ethnic diversity of the

United States provides a fruitful environment in which to test the different influences

of various ethnicities on SDB in measuring PSM.

This project investigates whether there are differences in the magnitude and

patterns of SDB when measuring PSM across ethnicities in the United States. Even

in such an individualistic society, people originating from different ethnic groups

may tend to have different attitudes. For instance, analyses using data from the

World Values Survey and cumulative General Social Surveys indicate that those

Americans who are descended from countries with highly civic populations tend

to hold relatively strong civic attitudes, while those who are descended from less

civic countries tend to hold relatively weaker civic attitudes (Rice & Feldman,

1997). This result implies that ethnic legacies are tenacious in many aspects of

civil life. Thus, it is plausible that the impact of SDB on PSM measures will vary

according to whether one’s ethnicity is West European, African, Latino, or East

Asian American.1