Which statement about face validity is true?

• A. It provides strong evidence of validity
• B. It is always accurate
• C. It is sometimes misleading because it refers simply to whether a test appears to measure something
• D. It guarantees reliability

Answer: (C)

Face validity is about how the test appears to measure what it’s supposed to measure, just by looking at it or based on a quick judgment. Because it relies on appearance rather than data, it can mislead people into thinking the test is better than it actually is. That’s why the true statement is that it can be misleading, since it only reflects surface impressions rather than evidence from how the test performs.

This also helps explain why the other ideas aren’t correct: appearance alone does not provide strong evidence of validity, so it’s not an assurance that the test truly measures the intended construct. It isn’t always accurate because people’s judgments about appearance vary and don’t reflect the underlying measurement properties. And it does not guarantee reliability, since reliability concerns consistency of scores across trials or items, which isn’t addressed by how the test looks.