When all signs point to you: Lies told in the face of evidence.

Abstract

Young children’s ability to tell a strategic lie by making it consistent with the physical evidence of their transgression was investigated along with the sociocognitive correlates of such lie-telling behaviors. In Experiment 1, 247 Chinese children between 3 and 5 years of age (126 boys) were left alone in a room and asked not to lift a cup to see the contents. If children lifted up the cup, the contents would be spilled and evidence of their transgression would be left behind. Upon returning to the room, the experimenter asked children whether they peeked and how the contents of the cup ended up on the table. Experiment 1 revealed that young children are able to tell strategic lies to be consistent with the physical evidence by about 4 or 5 years of age, and this ability increases in sophistication with age. Experiment 2, which included 252 Chinese 4-year-olds (127 boys), identified 2 sociocognitive factors related to children’s ability to tell strategic lies. Specifically, both children’s theory-of-mind understanding and inhibitory control skills were significantly related to their ability to tell strategic lies in the face of physical evidence. The present investigation reveals that contrary to the prevailing views, even young children are able to tell strategic lies in some contexts.

From junior to senior Pinocchio: A cross-sectional lifespan investigation of deception

“…Previous studies that found a correlation between deception ability and inhibitory control in adult samples used the Stroop task to assess inhibitory control (e.g., Visu-Petra et al, 2012). Developmental studies that examined the relation between executive control and lying administered several inhibition tasks, but only found a significant correlation with the Stroop task (Evans, Xu, & Lee, 2011;Talwar & Lee, 2008). One explanation may be the cognitively and neurally multifaceted character of response inhibition (Wager et al, 2005).…”

The roles of liar intention, lie content, and theory of mind in children’s evaluation of lies

“…For instance, in lie maintenance, children need to carefully monitor their subsequent communication with the lie recipient so that information that is inconsistent with the lie does not leak. They need to constantly update what the recipient ought to know about what they know, which calls for second-order belief understanding (Evans, Xu, & Lee, 2011;Polak & Harris, 1999;Talwar, Gordon, & Lee, 2007;Talwar & Lee, 2002a, 2008. When deciding whether a white lie should be told in an undesirable gift setting, one needs to assess the prospective lie recipient's feelings on hearing the truth versus a lie and also to appreciate that whether a gift is liked is a matter of personal taste.…”

Adli Psikiyatrik Değerlendirme ve Çocuk ile İletişim

“…Çocukların okul öncesi dönemde yalan söylemeye başlayabildiğini; ancak okul öncesi dönemdeki çocukların kognitif beceri-leri ve dili kullanım becerilerinin yeterli gelişmemesi nedeniyle stratejik, planlı ve amaçlı yalan söyleyemeyeceği bilinmektedir. Yalan söyleyebilme ve yalanı sürdürebil-me alışkanlığı yaşın artması ve bilişsel düzey gelişimi ile birlikte ilkokul yıllarında gelişmektedir (14).…”