Social desirability scores: an early sign of who won’t last?

Social desirability scores are usually treated as a validity check. They tell you whether to trust the results, not what the candidate will do on the job.

Two recent Prevue validation studies suggest the scale may tell you more. In both, employees in security-focused roles who scored high on the scale were more likely to leave on bad terms. This post covers what the studies found, why the pattern may hold, and how to use the scores in your hiring decisions.

How the scale works

Prevue’s Frank-Social Desirability scale is built from statements that almost nobody can honestly agree with. For example, “I have never been late for work.” Most people have been late at some point.

When a candidate agrees with most of these, it usually means they’re answering the way they think an employer wants them to, not describing how they actually behave. Our standard advice has been simple: if a candidate scores high, read the rest of the results with caution and follow up in an interview.

That advice still holds. What’s new is that a high Social Desirability score may carry its own signal.

What the validation studies found

Both studies involved security-focused roles: jobs where people must be trusted, use good judgment, and work with little supervision.

Study 1: Retail security guards

A security firm assessed 115 retail security guards. Guards who scored 8 or higher out of 10 on Social Desirability were far more likely to have a negative exit, meaning they were dismissed for cause or left on bad terms. That happened to 37% of high scorers, compared with 14% of everyone else.

Study 2: Juvenile correctional officers

A juvenile justice agency assessed 64 correctional officer hires. The finding here applied to officers whose results were already misaligned with the job benchmark on other scales. Within that group, officers with high Social Desirability scores were terminated 69% of the time, mostly within seven months. Officers with similar results but lower scores were terminated 21% of the time.

In both organizations, employees who had scored high on Social Desirability were more likely to leave on bad terms, and they tended to leave sooner. Finding the same pattern in two different workforces is worth taking seriously.

What does a high social desirability score mean?

A high social desirability score means the candidate presented an idealized version of themselves, most likely because they wanted the job and thought that was how to get it. In many roles, that’s an understandable impulse. In roles built on trust, it may be an early warning sign about reliability.

Researchers have long debated what that behavior reveals, and the evidence points two ways.

Reading 1: Image management. High scorers may be shaping how they come across rather than describing how they behave. A 2003 study of more than 1,300 police officers supports this view: scores on the MMPI-2 Lie (L) scale were associated with termination for cause and insubordination.

Reading 2: Genuine reliability. Other research finds that high scorers also tend to score high on conscientiousness. This suggests the scale may sometimes identify people who are genuinely dependable.

Our two studies don’t settle the debate, but in both, high scores lined up with negative exits.

What to do with a high score

A high score doesn’t mean someone is dishonest. It could be nerves or eagerness to make a good impression, and occasionally you’ll come across someone who’s never been late in their life.

So treat it as a flag, not a verdict. Nobody should be screened out on this score alone. Instead, use it as a reason to look a little harder in three places:

• The interview. Ask behavioral questions about mistakes, missed deadlines, attendance and reliability.
• Reference checks. Ask specifically about attendance and dependability.
• The final decision. Weigh the full picture, and look more closely when other scores are already borderline.

Every role is different

These findings come from two security-focused roles, and results can vary. What holds for retail security guards and correctional officers may look quite different in your organization.

The best way to know how the scale works for your jobs is to look at your own results. A Validation Study with Prevue uses your hiring and tenure data to answer that question. Current clients can contact their Customer Success Manager to learn more. New to Prevue? Get in touch to see how validation studies work.