What are social desirability biases?

Social desirability biases occur when participants adjust their responses to survey questions or interviews in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. This often involves providing answers that align with social norms or expectations rather than their true feelings or behaviors. Such biases can significantly impact the validity of research findings because they can lead to inaccurate data, skewing the results toward what is perceived as acceptable rather than reflecting the participants' genuine opinions or actions. Researchers must be aware of this bias and may take steps to mitigate it, such as ensuring confidentiality or using indirect questioning techniques.

The other options refer to different concepts in research methods. Unintended biases in the experimenter's interpretation pertain to subjective interpretations by the researcher and can influence data quality, while statistical errors during data analysis involve inaccuracies in calculations or interpretations of the data. Confounding variables refer to external factors that may distort the observed relationship between the independent and dependent variables in a study.