Social Desirability Bias among Prejudice Instruments : An Integrated Threat

Abstract

A considerable amount of research has examined the extent to which members of dominant cultures perceive minority groups as threatening their way of life. While various instruments measure these perceptions of threat, few researchers have empirically analysed the statistical properties of these scales. Specifically, studies have not adequately explored social desirability of threat scales. The current study investigates the extent to which one set of threat scales is internally consistent or reliable (González et al., 2008), and explores social desirability within the González et al. (2008) integrated threat instruments by comparing self-reports to other reports (intimate other and friend reports). Results indicate the instruments are internally consistent and that self-reports and other reports of threat do not differ on most indices of threat.