How can social desirability bias distort Griffin Hill results?

• A. It increases the tendency to underreport misconduct.
• B. It reduces the reliability of time-based measures.
• C. It inflates favorable responses to appear more honest or compliant than one truly is, masking true integrity risk.
• D. It has no effect on self-report scales.

Answer: (C)

Social desirability bias makes people want to present themselves in a favorable light rather than be completely honest. In self-report integrity measures like Griffin Hill, that means respondents may inflate positive traits—claiming they’re more honest or compliant than they truly are. The result is a skewed picture where apparent integrity risk is masked, since the answers suggest higher integrity than what’s real. This distortion specifically affects self-report scales and can lead to underestimating actual risk, rather than accurately reflecting behavior. While time-based measures aren’t the focus here, the key idea is that social desirability can systematically inflate favorable responses, and using validity checks or multiple methods can help counteract it.