Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 17, No. 2, April 2005 ( C  2005) DOI: 10.1007/s11194-005-4604-z Do Child Molesters Deliberately Fake Good on Cognitive Distortion Questionnaires? An Information Processing-Based Investigation Theresa A. Gannon 1,2 and Devon L. L. Polaschek 1 Researchers and clinicians hypothesize that child molesters hold offence- supportive beliefs or cognitive distortions that require restructuring for successful rehabilitation. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this hypothe- sis. Current questionnaire measures of both untreated and treated child molesters’ cognitive distortions show that these men typically disagree with cognitive distor- tions. Such findings, especially prior to treatment, are often interpreted to mean that child molesters are faking good. In this study we drew on personality-related research showing that when participants intentionally respond in a socially desir- able way on questionnaires, they make faster item responses than when answering honestly. Untreated child molesters, treated child molesters, and two types of con- trols (nonsexual offenders and nonoffenders) were administered a computerized cognitive distortion questionnaire and their responses and response times were recorded. Consistent with previous research, all groups tended to disagree with the cognitive distortions. However, response time data were surprising; only the treated child molesters displayed the fake-good pattern of responding significantly faster in rejecting cognitive distortions. We speculate about the implications of these results for the cognitive distortion hypothesis, and for understanding how current treatment programs effect cognitive distortion change. KEY WORDS: cognitive distortion; child molester; faking good; response times; treatment. Many people find it hard to imagine how a man could sexually abuse a child. Their own abhorrence of such acts suggests to them that in order to of- fend, perpetrators must hold perceptions and beliefs that are fundamentally dif- ferent to those held by right-minded people. When child molesters talk about 1 Victoria University ofWellington, Wellington, New Zealand. 2 To whom correspondence should be addressed at School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand; e-mail: theresa.gannon@vuw.ac.nz. 183 1079-0632/05/0400-0183/0 C  2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.