Ethnic Affirmation Versus Social Desirability

An analysis was made as to the possible explanations for the fact that bilinguals provide different responses when answering in each of their two languages. Spanish/ English bilinguals answered a paper-and-pencil instrument that contained emic and etic questions. Cultural "anchors"were obtained from a sample of monolingual students, and groups of Hispanic and Anglo psychologists rated the social desirability of all items. The results show that although some differences can be explained in terms of ethnic affirmation, social desirability explains the largest number of differences found.