An Evaluation of the Social Desirability of Prosocial Self—Other Allocation Choices

Abstract New Zealand university students participated in two studies that assessed the effect of social desirability on prosocial choice options in two-person decomposed games used to measure social values. Study 1 indicated that the prosocial option was very socially desirable. Study 2 indicated that the individuals who chose the prosocial option did not differ in their expression of general social desirability motives from the individuals who chose other nonprosocial options. These data suggest that, although the structure of the task offered the participants a salient, socially desirable way to respond, a choice of the prosocial option was probably more a reflection of the participants' true social value orientations than of the effect of social desirability.