On the utility of indirect methods for detecting faking

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Indirect indices for faking detection in questionnaires make use of a respondent’s deviant or unlikely response pattern over the course of the questionnaire to identify them as a faker. Compared with established direct faking indices (i.e., lying and social desirability scales), indirect indices have at least two advantages: First, they cannot be detected by the test taker. Second, their usage does not require changes to the questionnaire. In the last decades, several such indirect indices have been proposed. However, at present, the researcher’s choice between different indirect faking detection indices is guided by relatively little information, especially if conceptually different indices are to be used together. Thus, we examined and compared how well indices of a representative selection of 12 conceptionally different indirect indices perform and how well they perform individually and jointly compared with an established direct faking measure or validity scale. We found that, first, the score on the agreement factor of the Likert-type item response process tree model, the proportion of desirable scale endpoint responses, and the covariance index were the best-performing indirect indices. Second, using indirect indices in combination resulted in comparable and in some cases even better detection rates than when using direct faking measures. Third, some effective indirect indices were only minimally correlated with substantive scales and could therefore be used to partial faking variance from response sets without losing substance. We, therefore, encourage researchers to use indirect indices instead of direct faking measures when they aim to detect faking in their data.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEducational and Psychological Measurement
Volume84
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)841-868
Number of pages28
ISSN0013-1644
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Effects of linguistic demands of reality-based mathematical tasks
  2. Obstacle Coordinates Transformation from TVS Body-Frame to AGV Navigation-Frame
  3. Spectral Early-Warning Signals for Sudden Changes in Time-Dependent Flow Patterns
  4. Effectiveness of the world network of biosphere reserves in maintaining forest ecosystem functions
  5. Understanding european union law
  6. Frame Diffusion and Institutional Choice in Regional Economic Cooperation
  7. Sozialkybernetik in statu nascendi
  8. Learning from Indigenous Populations and Local Communities
  9. Einführung in das Buch
  10. Zootechnologies
  11. Groupware und Workflow- Konzepte und Systemvergleich
  12. Sufficiency as relations of enoughness
  13. Teaching Provenance to AI
  14. Challenges in calculating two-year college student transfer rates to four-year colleges
  15. Variational pragmatics
  16. Why husbands matter
  17. Sex differences in mental rotation strategy
  18. Slowing resource loops in the clothing industry through Circular Business Model Experimentation
  19. Building capacities for transformative change towards sustainability
  20. Analphabetismus
  21. Toward a modular evaluation approach of real-world laboratories
  22. Multi-level Governance, Policy Implementation and Participation
  23. The potential impacts of insecticides on the life-history traits of bees and the consequences for pollination
  24. Do Online Training offer an effective Option for the Prevention and Health Promotion of Professionals? A systematic Overview and Meta-analysis
  25. Study of intrinsic and extrinsic size effects on shear bands in metallic glasses
  26. Maritime strategies of rising powers
  27. A new approach to semantic sustainability assessment
  28. Substanz, Körper und Affekte
  29. Akteure, Berater und Beobachter, oder: wie kommt Strategie in die Politik?
  30. An Imperfect Union?
  31. Converging perspectives in audience studies and digital literacies