Response Bias in the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: Detecting the Exaggeration of Stress

Summary The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was administered on two occasions to 283 Ss, first with standard instructions and then with instructions to exaggerate the appearance of stress. Mean scores on both scales of the STAI were higher after the “fake bad,” than after the standard instructions. Scores from subsets of items were found to discriminate effectively between authentic and simulated records; however, the most efficient classification of records was obtained with use of raw scores from the A-State scale. If any record with a score of over 48 was considered “stress-simulated,” 95.7% of the records were classified correctly. The implications of these findings for use of the STAI were discussed.