What question did this study set out to answer?

To determine whether personality traits of social desirability and social approval introduce systematic error into self-reported physical activity recalls when evaluated against objective measures.

February 3, 2005American Journal of EpidemiologyOpen Access

The Effect of Social Desirability and Social Approval on Self-Reports of Physical Activity

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To determine whether personality traits of social desirability and social approval introduce systematic error into self-reported physical activity recalls when evaluated against objective measures.
Assessed 81 women residing in Worcester, Massachusetts (1997) who completed doubly labeled water energy expenditure protocols and wore an activity monitor for 14 days.
Administered seven 24-hour physical activity recalls and two distinct self-administered 7-day physical activity recalls.
Regressed social desirability and social approval trait scores against differences in energy expenditure and duration between self-reports and objective reference standards.
Higher social desirability was associated with overestimation of physical activity energy expenditure on the second 7-day recall by 0.65 kcal/kg/day (95% CI: 0.06, 1.25) and overestimation of duration by 4.15 to 11.30 minutes/day across both 7-day recalls.
Social approval showed a weak association with underestimation of physical activity energy expenditure on the 24-hour recall (-0.15 kcal/kg/day; 95% CI: -0.30, 0.005).
Body size was not associated with physical activity reporting bias on any assessment instrument.

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Implication

Observational study finds social desirability drives overreporting of physical activity in women, suggesting survey instruments introduce psychological reporting bias.

Cite This Study

Samantha Adams (2005) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69d6ac90a0177bf533ed8879 https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwi054

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Implication

Observational study finds social desirability drives overreporting of physical activity in women, suggesting survey instruments introduce psychological reporting bias.

The Effect of Social Desirability and Social Approval on Self-Reports of Physical Activity

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Implication

Cite This Study

The Effect of Social Desirability and Social Approval on Self-Reports of Physical Activity

Key Points

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Implication

Cite This Study

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