Degree of Susceptibility to Faking of the Ethical Reasoning Inventory

Abstract

This study sought to determine whether the Ethical Reasoning Inventory, a recently developed objective measure of moral reasoning, was susceptible to faking. A total of 174 college students were given the measure with either standard, "fake good," or "fake bad" instructions. The standard condition produced a seven-day test-re test reliability of .80. Subjects were unable to fake upward but were able to lower their scores significantly. In addition, those initially scoring high were able to fake significantly lower than those initially scoring low, possibly indicating a better understanding of the lower stages.