Religious Influences on Sensitive Self-Reported Behaviors: The Product of Social Desirability, Deceit, or Embarrassment?*

Religion appears to exert influence on numerous types of adolescent attitudes and actions. However, some researchers remain skeptical, attributing religious effects to selection processes, social desirability bias in survey responses, or a combination of the two. In this study we evaluate the evidence about social desirability and candidness explanations for apparent religious influences, and analyze data from a nationally representative dataset of American adolescents. Results suggest that while social desirability and embarrassment modestly diminish the likelihood of self-reporting some sensitive behaviors, they are neither associated with religiosity nor do they undermine apparent religious effects. We conclude that religious youth are not systematically at risk of providing unintentionally invalid or intentionally inaccurate self-reports of behaviors that are of a sensitive nature.