Measuring Social Desirability Bias With Person-Items Map Analysis: Incorporating SEM and Person-Items Map Analysis Part 4

In present day, the issue of social desirability bias (SDB) has only acted as a savior explanation when behavioral research results are considered anomalous. The well-known SDB scale, namely MCSD, has 33 items that are impractical to include SDB as a variable in the proposed model. Therefore, we try to offer an alternative way to measure SDB other than the existing ones. Novelty: This research provides evidence and formulates a way to measure SDB using the person-items map (PIM). Research Methods: We conducted a simulation of SDB calculations with PIM analysis on 367 Muslim women regarding their intentions to wear the hijab. This sample came from published SEM-based research that produced anomalous results. Findings: We found that respondents overestimated their religiosity to an impossible level. Statistically, an indication of high values can be seen from the comparison of M (mean), S (standard deviation) and T (2 times the standard deviation) values between respondents’ abilities and the level of difficulty of the questions. There is serendipity in the form of considerations for determining the type of selected independent variables used as the location for measuring SDB. Conclusion: This article shows that SDB measurement can be done using PIM. Although it does not use the popular SDB scale, the results are still reliable because they meet strict requirements.