Parenting by lying in childhood is associated with negative developmental outcomes in adulthood

Parents with greater religiosity lie less to their children.

“…As is the case with instrumental lying to children, these forms of lying may shape children's beliefs about the extent to which lying is socially acceptable because children are witnesses of parents' lying behaviors and may inadvertently be teaching them that lying is an acceptable practice to engage in with others. This is consistent with the evidence suggesting that children learn a substantial amount of information through overheard conversation (Akhtar et al, 2001;Au et al, 2002;Phillips et al, 2012;Repacholi & Meltzoff, 2007;Setoh et al, 2020). It is also consistent with the theoretical framework emphasizing that children learn which behaviors are morally acceptable through observational learning (Bandura, 1977;Ma et al, 2018;Warneken & Orlins, 2015).…”

“…Similarly, the negative associations between parental lying and children’s mental health have also been observed in Canadian females (Santos et al, 2017). Furthermore, the results of these studies suggest that children’s rate of lying to their parents acts as a mediator between parental lying and maladjustment problems (Santos et al, 2017; Setoh et al, 2020). As such, parental lying, especially self-oriented parental lying, may promote children’s dishonesty and contribute to children’s mental health problems.…”

“…In this case, parents' lies directly contradict their explicit emphasis on the importance of honesty. This contradiction may pose a challenge to children's moral socialization because parents are the primary and most important role models in childhood (Setoh, Zhao, Santos, Heyman, & Lee, 2020). For example, Santos, Zanette, Kwok, Heyman, and Lee (2017) and Setoh et al (2020) found that young adults who experienced more parental lying as a child were also more likely to lie to their parents as adults.…”

Understanding the development of honesty in children through the domains‐of‐socialization approach

“…Moreover, the effects of parents' lies to gain their children's compliance appear to be enduring. Adults who reported that their parents lied to them to solicit desired behaviours in childhood also reported lying to their parents in adulthood, and the more they experienced parenting by lying, the more they lied (Santos, Zanette, Kwok, Heyman, & Lee, 2017; Setoh, Zhao, Santos, Heyman, & Lee, 2020). Parenting by lying may lead to increased lie‐telling because it hinders value internalization.…”

You Liar! Attributions of Lying

“…Some deception literature has found discrepancies between self and others with regards to lying. For example, parents tend to strongly teach their children to be honest while they lie (Heyman et al, 2009). Within intimate relationships, people tend to view their own deception as more justified than their partner's use of deception (Hart et al, 2014).…”