Study examines interaction between ninth-grade readers' (N=72) social desirability concerns and comprehension of text that does or does not violate social values. Results reveal that comprehension scores increased with reading level, and were lower on paragraphs that violated social values. Students with higher social desirability concerns had more difficulty with paragraphs that violated social values, independent of reading level. (Contains 51 references and 3 tables.) (Author/GCP)