Unraveling honest responding: a systematic review on the effectiveness of social desirability bias reduction methods in survey research

Social Desirability Bias (SDB), the tendency of respondents to present themselves in socially acceptable terms, poses serious challenges for the validity of survey research. This study systematically reviewed the effectiveness of methods aimed at reducing SDB. Searches in Scopus and PsycINFO of publications from 2017 to 2021 identified a total of 121 experiments in 79 peer-reviewed papers. These experiments, conducted in over 20 Western countries, employed 13 SDB-reduction methods across more than 17 behavioral or cognitive topics. Based on 10 quality measures, the methodological quality of these experiments was typically high. There was considerable variability in the frequency of SDB-reduction methods being used and their effectiveness. The most common methods were list experiments, probability-based techniques (RRT/NRRT), face-saving strategies, survey mode, and proxy reporting. Overall, in 55% of experiments SDB was significantly reduced, with face-saving strategies demonstrating the highest efficacy. Future research should aim at replicating these findings in a wider range of (societally relevant) topics and more comprehensively testing promising less explored methods. This review highlights the importance of continuing to refine and test SDB reduction techniques to improve survey data quality. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11135-026-02664-7.