Will Item Desirability Matching Match Forced-choice Personality Tests in Desirability?

Personality tests in the forced-choice response format may prevent job applicants from faking responses if items comprising forced-choice blocks are matched in terms of desirability for the job. We examine the effectiveness of very close item matching in creating blocks of item-pairs equal in desirability. We show that even under very stringent matching, participants can identify a more desirable item in item-pairs, unless item-pairs are consisting of undesirable items. Implications for forced-choice test construction are discussed.