Can Social Desirability Be Detected Statistically at the Macro-Sociological Level?

Abstract

While a few have argued that social science has been subject to progressive biases, others have discounted such ideas. However, no one has yet performed empirical tests over a large range of studies for such possible bias, which we label macro-level social desirability (MLSD). Combining the results from fifty-nine empirical studies that assessed rates of nonheterosexuality among children of same-sex parents, we found that the higher the maximum rates reported, the less likely those reports were to have been cited in Google Scholar by counts or by annual rate, which may reflect MLSD. However, after several statistical controls, the association for counts became non-significant, while the association for rates became stronger, although the effect sizes were in a moderate (d = .28 or higher) to large range (d, up to .68) by either analysis. Generally, research quality acted as a suppressor variable for MLSD but was significantly related to both counts and rates of citations, indicating that higher quality articles were more likely to have been cited, even controlling for the number of years since first publication. Higher quality articles were slightly more likely to report higher rates of nonheterosexuality among children of same-sex parents. We discuss implications of our findings and suggest future directions of research.

Difficulties With Methodology in Social Science Research With Controversial Issues Regarding Human Sexuality

“…Social desirability response bias (Regnerus 2020) is another concept that is seldom considered as a possible factor in how people might respond to questions about human sexuality. Sometimes social desirability is measured but then apparently not used in an article’s statistical analyses (Lefevor et al 2020; Schumm 2015; Schumm and Crawford 2021a).…”

“…Even the minority of reviews that presented some contrary data usually cited only one or two studies to that effect. Yet, there is evidence from dozens of studies, summarized elsewhere, including meta-analyses (Schumm 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020c; Schumm and Crawford 2021a, 2021b; 2021c), that there the children of same-sex parents are more likely to become nonheterosexual. As a most recent example, Gartrell et al (2019) found that over 70% of the daughters of lesbian mothers (when the daughters were 25 years old, having been studied since birth in a longitudinal study) reported same-sex sexual attractions.…”