The “Good Old Days” Bias and Feigning: Examining the Response Patterns in Genuine and Feigned Injury Accounts

In this simulation study, we investigated whether the “Good Old Days” (GOD) bias, typically associated with genuine symptom accounts, also occurs in fabricated injury accounts. Based on injury pre-screening, students were allocated to Injured (n= 69), Uninjured (n= 46), or Feigning groups (n= 39). Participants (N= 154) completed well-being and symptom scales and response bias tests, for the pre-injury and current period. The GOD bias, as the discrepancy between these scores, was absent in Uninjured, but present among the Injured and Feigning groups, with larger discrepancies among feigners. Thus, GOD bias presence alone cannot differentiate genuine from fabricated accounts, but its magnitude may inform symptom validity assessment.