Social desirability bias in software piracy research: Evidence from pilot studies

Social desirability bias (SDB) is the under-or over-reporting of behaviors by a respondent in order to appear more acceptable, or gain the approval of others. The presence of SDB in studies of software piracy behavior has been suspected for long. However, few studies have explicitly addressed this issue in detail. In the current article, results from a set of pilot studies are reported. These pilot studies compare software piracy behavior in experimental studies to responses of intentions to pirate in paper-based scenarios, under equivalent conditions. The comparisons provide valuable preliminary insights into the understanding of SDB in software piracy, and suggest the need to account for SDB research in software piracy studies.