Self-reported nonprejudice is often doubted by social psychologists

Evidence

Two additional personal constructs were measured to ensure that they were not redundant with the collective guilt subscales. First, the thirtythree-item Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964) was collected in order to ensure that collective guilt was not simply a reflection of social approval motivation (e.g., “I have never deliberately said something that hurt someone’s feelings”). Second, the ten-item Personal Self-Esteem measure (Rosenberg, 1979) was completed to ensure that collective guilt could be discriminated from the level of personal self-esteem (e.g., “At times, I think I am no good at all”). As can be seen in Table 2, none of the collective guilt subscales were significantly correlated with either social desirability or personal self-esteem. Therefore, reporting feelings of collective guilt is not simply a function of the perceivers’ general concerns about projecting a socially desirable self or their private feelings of self-worth. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 196 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Overt self-reporting of prejudice is contaminated by social-desirability concerns — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 269; Collective guilt reporting is not driven by social desirability or self-esteem bias — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 196; Personality traits can be measured through informant reports rather than self-reports alone — Sherman A. Lee, Chelsea A. Reid, Stephen D. Short, Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ruth Yeh, and Matthew L. Campbell, Fear of Muslims: Psychometric…, 95 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Collective guilt reporting is not driven by social desirability or self-esteem bias #complicates (0.75) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 196