Men engage in self‐deceptive enhancement, whereas women engage in impression management

Consumer surveys are integral to marketers' understanding of consumers' judgments, preferences, and choices. However, consumers often respond in socially desirable ways, making it difficult to accurately ascertain their true preferences and reactions. In this regard, research has produced conflicting findings on who engages more in socially desirable responding: men or women. Our research is at the intersection of psychology and marketing to understand the effect of gender differences on socially desirable responding. We tested hypotheses regarding the types of socially desirable responding of men versus women and the underlying motivations. Across three studies, we show that men (compared to women) have a greater tendency to engage in self‐deceptive enhancement—the tendency to provide inflated and honestly held self‐descriptions in response to questions—and a promotion focus mediates this relationship. In contrast, women (compared to men) have a greater tendency to engage in impression management—the tendency to distort responses to present themselves most positively to maintain a favorable image—and a prevention focus mediates this relationship. Consequently, gender differences in promotion versus prevention focus are likely to have important theoretical implications for a gender‐based explanation of different behaviors associated with regulatory focus. From a practical standpoint, marketers can utilize priming techniques to temporarily heighten gender identity and influence preferences for products that provide self‐enhancement or image‐protection benefits.