Most directly, social desirability can compromise the validity of scores on a measure. ... However, if some participants have a socially desirable response style (e.g., an egoistic bias), then those people might respond to the questionnaire in a way that exaggerates their true level of self-esteem.

What does social desirability effect?

In social science research, social-desirability bias is a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. It can take the form of over-reporting "good behavior" or under-reporting "bad", or undesirable behavior.

Why does social desirability bias happen?

Social desirability bias occurs when the topic of the survey or interview is a sensitive one. The respondents will give a socially accepted answer because the matter is too sensitive for them so, they don't want to reveal their true feelings about it.