Motivation Science, Vol 11(3), Sep 2025, 246-258; doi:10.1037/mot0000399
Honest self-reporting is essential for valid conclusions about motivation, but it cannot be taken for granted. This is especially true for the private and sensitive domain of sexual motivation, where participants may feel pressured to conform their responses to (gendered) social norms. Such tendencies can have far-reaching implications for society and science, including the potential overestimation of gender differences in sexual motivation. In the present research, we investigated whether the hope that online data collection could help mitigate the problem of socially desirable responses to indicators of sexual motivation is justified. We used the item sum technique—an indirect questioning method that maximizes anonymity—to establish a strong standard of comparison for standard online self-reports (Ntotal = 2,857). For several theory-driven indicators of sexual motivation, frequency estimates and gender differences were unaffected by response method, providing little evidence of social desirability bias in online studies. Additional findings, such as small to no gender differences for sexual bias indicators, near-maximal levels of self-reported honesty, and weak associations between sexual motivation and social desirability scales, further support this conclusion. We discuss these findings in the context of the ongoing debate about the validity of gender differences in sexual motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)