Testing competing claims about overclaiming

Bible Overclaiming and Intimate Partner Violence

Religion has had a mixed impact on society, with some followers engaging in violent behavior. It remains unclear why some followers perpetrate violence and others are peaceful. We argue that religious overclaiming is one facet of religion to be considered when trying to understand the relationship between religion and violence. Across two studies (N = 551), we tested the hypothesis that a higher tendency to overclaim knowledge of the Christian Bible would be associated with higher perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV). We also tested the hypotheses that men who overclaim would be most likely to engage in the perpetration of IPV, and that higher religiosity would attenuate the effects of religious overclaiming. In both studies, participants completed a measure of religious overclaiming, reported on their perpetration of IPV, and reported their religiosity. Our findings across both studies indicated that Bible overclaiming was associated with greater perpetration of IPV. Further, Study 1 found that those high in Bible overclaiming (especially men) engaged in the most perpetration of IPV. However, this gender-based finding did not replicate in Study 2. Both studies found that religiosity was unassociated with the perpetration of IPV. Our results provide evidence that Bible overclaiming is related to the perpetration of IPV. Specifically, individuals who claim to know religious concepts that do not exist are associated with a higher risk for IPV.

What do meta-analysts need in primary studies? Guidelines and the SEMI checklist for facilitating cumulative knowledge

Meta-analysis is often recognized as the highest level of evidence due to its notable advantages. Therefore, ensuring the precision of its findings is of utmost importance. Insufficient reporting in primary studies poses challenges for meta-analysts, hindering study identification, effect size estimation, and meta-regression analyses. This manuscript provides concise guidelines for the comprehensive reporting of qualitative and quantitative aspects in primary studies. Adhering to these guidelines may help researchers enhance the quality of their studies and increase their eligibility for inclusion in future research syntheses, thereby enhancing research synthesis quality. Recommendations include incorporating relevant terms in titles and abstracts to facilitate study retrieval and reporting sufficient data for effect size calculation. Additionally, a new checklist is introduced to help applied researchers thoroughly report various aspects of their studies.

The Nomological Net of Knowledge, Self-Reported Knowledge, and Overclaiming in Children

Research on self-reported knowledge and overclaiming in children is sparse. With the current study, we aim to close this gap by developing an overclaiming questionnaire measuring self-reported knowledge and overclaiming that is tailored to children. Moreover, we examine the nomological net of self-reported knowledge and overclaiming in childhood discussing three perspectives: Overclaiming as (a) a result of deliberate self-enhancement tendencies, (b) a proxy for declarative knowledge, and (c) an indicator of creative engagement. We juxtaposed overclaiming, as indicated by claiming familiarity with non-existent terms, and self-reported knowledge with fluid and crystallized intelligence, creativity, and personality traits in a sample of 897 children attending third grade. The results of several latent variable analyses were similar to findings known from adult samples: We found no strong evidence for any of the competing perspectives on overclaiming. Just like in adults, individual differences in self-reported knowledge were strongly inflated by overclaiming, and only weakly related to declarative knowledge.

A New Approach to Desirable Responding: Multidimensional Item Response Model of Overclaiming Data

A variety of approaches have been presented for assessing desirable responding in self-report measures. Among them, the overclaiming technique asks respondents to rate their familiarity with a large set of real and nonexistent items (foils). The application of signal detection formulas to the endorsement rates of real items and foils yields indices of (a) knowledge accuracy and (b) knowledge bias. This overclaiming technique reflects both cognitive ability and personality. Here, we develop an alternative measurement model based on multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). We report three studies demonstrating this new model's capacity to analyze overclaiming data. First, a simulation study illustrates that MIRT and signal detection theory yield comparable indices of accuracy and bias-although MIRT provides important additional information. Two empirical examples-one based on mathematical terms and one based on Chinese idioms-are then elaborated. Together, they demonstrate the utility of this new approach for group comparisons and item selection. The implications of this research are illustrated and discussed.

The utility of overclaiming questionnaires depends on the fit between test content and application context

Overclaiming questionnaires (OCQs) were proposed as a means to counteract social desirability bias by capturing individual differences in participants’ self-enhancement tendencies in self-report assessments. Previous studies that evaluated OCQs reported mixed results. However, fit between the content of an OCQ in terms of its items and the context in which the measure is presented has not been tested systematically. In a mock application study (N = 432), we compared different levels of content-context fit between conditions. Results show that the utility of a general knowledge OCQ varied as a function of its content fit to different application contexts. Expectedly, overclaiming was most pronounced in an application context with optimal content fit to the OCQ, followed by a context with lower fit and an honest control condition without application context. Furthermore, participants in the application conditions were shown to successfully fake on conventional personality scales while incorporating specific requirements of the application context into their faking behavior. Our results thus corroborate previous findings suggesting a high susceptibility of personality scales to deliberate faking. In contrast, when content-context fit is taken into account, OCQs may be a promising method for assessing applicant faking.

Is Flexibility More than Fluency and Originality?

Flexibility (i.e., the number of categorically different ideas), fluency (i.e., the answer quantity), and originality (i.e., the quality of ideas) are essential aspects of the ability to think divergently. Theoretically, fluency and ideational flexibility tasks are akin to one another. However, flexibility was also considered to be uniquely related to working memory capacity due to the task requirements involved in generating diverse answers (e.g., self-monitoring, suppression, and category generation). Given that the role of working memory is strengthened in flexibility tasks relative to fluency and originality tasks, flexibility should be more strongly related with working memory. Additionally, mental speed should show a similar pattern of results because mental speed has been previously related to task complexity. Based on a sample of N = 409 adults (M_age = 24.01 years), we found in latent variable models that fluency/originality strongly predicts flexibility and accounts for 61% of its variance. Creative flexibility was unrelated to working memory and mental speed after controlling for fluency/originality. Additionally, the residual of a latent flexibility factor was unrelated to self-reported creative activities. We concluded that flexibility, as measured here, can be deemed primarily a method factor that did not show value over and above fluency/originality as assessed in traditional fluency and originality tasks. We discussed perspectives for disentangling trait and method variance in flexibility tasks.

Misplaced certainty in the context of conspiracy theories

We examine conspiracy beliefs in the context of misplaced certainty-certainty that is unsubstantiated by one's own or others' skepticism. A conspiracy theory held with misplaced certainty may entail, for instance, "knowing" or feeling certain that secret actors are plotting against society yet acknowledging that this claim lacks evidence or is opposed by most other people. Recent work on misplaced certainty suggests that misplaced certainty predicts and results in antisocial outcomes, including fanatical behavior in terms of aggression, determined ignorance, and adherence to extreme groups. Introducing the concept of misplaced certainty to theory and research on conspiracy theories may help identify when and why conspiracy theories lead to deleterious behavioral outcomes.

Nothing but the truth? Effects of faking on the validity of the crosswise model

In self-reports, socially desirable responding threatens the validity of prevalence estimates for sensitive personal attitudes and behaviors. Indirect questioning techniques such as the crosswise model attempt to control for the influence of social desirability bias. The crosswise model has repeatedly been found to provide more valid prevalence estimates than direct questions. We investigated whether crosswise model estimates are also less susceptible to deliberate faking than direct questions. To this end, we investigated the effect of "fake good" instructions on responses to direct and crosswise model questions. In a sample of 1,946 university students, 12-month prevalence estimates for a sensitive road traffic behavior were higher and thus presumably more valid in the crosswise model than in a direct question. Moreover, "fake good" instructions severely impaired the validity of the direct questioning estimates, whereas the crosswise model estimates were unaffected by deliberate faking. Participants also reported higher levels of perceived confidentiality and a lower perceived ease of faking in the crosswise model compared to direct questions. Our results corroborate previous studies finding the crosswise model to be an effective tool for counteracting the detrimental effects of positive self-presentation in surveys on sensitive issues.

The Implicit Component of Moral Disengagement: Applying the Relational Responding Task to Investigate Its Relationship With Cheating Behavior

This article aims to conceptualize, for the first time, an implicit form of moral disengagement and investigate its role in relation to cheating behavior. In line with the implicit social-cognition models, we argue that the implicit moral disengagement would represent an unintentional, automatic, and less accessible form of the mechanisms bypassing the moral self-regulatory system. We anticipate that in situations implying on-the-spot decisions and where individuals might suffer no consequences for the misconduct, the implicit moral disengagement would predict the actual behavior while the explicit moral disengagement would predict self-reported conduct. The results of three empirical studies provide support for the theorization of an implicit moral disengagement and its assessment through a newly developed implicit measurement procedure using the relational responding task. Results of the structural equation models, including both implicit and explicit moral disengagement, demonstrated that only the implicit one was associated with the actual misconduct.