Myths and realities: effort and response distortion in low-stakes, self-report assessments of noncognitive skills

Over the past several decades, the higher education community has become increasingly interested in assessing noncognitive factors. Most tools still rely on self-report (e.g., Likert-type) items to measure these skills and behaviors, yet there are many concerns that arise from anecdotal or hypothetical behaviors—patterns of student responding to surveys that may threaten the validity of the results. This paper uses data from a national study of college students’ noncognitive skills to examine the extent to which two of these phenomena–low effort and response bias–occur. Although some students fit a profile that suggests potential inaccuracies, data show that such occurrences are rare and these hypothetical behaviors in low-stakes, self-report assessment pose a minimal threat to the validity of their use.