In the Eye of the Beholder: Considering Culture in Assessing the Social Desirability of Personality

Multinational organizations are increasingly looking to deploy assessments on a global basis. However, the social desirability of different personality characteristics may vary as a function of culture, yet limited research has explored this idea. Based on the GLOBE cultural dimensions and the theory of purposeful behavior, we examined potential connections between cultural practice dimensions and the desirability of personality aspects with a large personality item bank, utilizing raters across 34 countries. Findings indicated few connections of societal level cultural practices and social desirability perceptions for particular aspects. An exception to this was the finding that higher social desirability ratings were given for cooperativeness, sensitivity, and assertiveness in Confucian Asian, South Asian, and Sub-Saharan contexts compared with Germanic Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Latin Europe contexts. Limitations of the study as well as implications for development and use of personality assessments globally in high stakes contexts are discussed.