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Social desirability biases in self-reported alcohol consumption and harms
Abstract
Aims Self-reports remain the most common means of assessing alcohol consumption despite concern for their validity. The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which social desirability biases relate to self-reported consumption, hazardous use, and harms.Methods In each of two studies presented, undergraduate students (N=391 and N=177) who reported that they had consumed alcohol in the past year completed online confidential surveys.Results Both studies show consistent associations between impression management bias and self-reported consumption such that high impression managers report 20 to 33% less consumption and are about 50% less likely to report risky drinking. No significant correlations involving consumption were found for self-deception bias. Study 2 also indicated that high impression managers report 30-50% fewer acute harms following a drinking episode, and that these effects are maintained after controlling statistically for trait impulsivity/constraint.Conclusions Impression management bias represents a significant threat to the validity of self-reported alcohol use and harms. Such bias may lead to misspecification of models and under-estimates of harmful or hazardous use.
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“This gap may result from social desirability bias, which is the tendency to underreport socially undesirable attitudes and behaviors and to overreport more desirable attributes; this bias is more pronounced with illicit substances [31].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Davis, C. G., Thake, J., & Vilhena, N.
- Affiliations
- Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CA)
- Carleton University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Davis, Christopher G.
- Venue
- Addictive Behaviors
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 302-311
- ISSN
- 0306-4603 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1964412419
- Semantic Scholar
- 773b4359a9ebf918a9f6d3452e59a9f68504d676
- Cited by
- 524
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Addictive Behaviors (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Keywords
- social desirability bias, impression management, self-reported alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm, hazardous drinking, measurement validity, undergraduate students, impulsivity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Alcohol Drinking, Attitude, Canada, Female, Humans, Male, Self Disclosure, Social Desirability, Students, Universities, Reproducibility of Results, Bias, Young Adult, Self Report
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