Young Children Selectively Hide the Truth About Sensitive Topics

Abstract

Starting in early childhood, children are socialized to be honest. However, they are also expected to avoid telling the truth in sensitive situations if doing so could be seen as inappropriate or impolite. Across two studies (total N = 358), the reasoning of 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children in such a scenario was investigated by manipulating whether the information in question would be helpful to the recipient. The studies used a reverse rouge paradigm, in which a confederate with a highly salient red mark on her nose asked children whether she looked okay prior to having her picture taken. In Study 1, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark was temporary and the confederate did not know it was there. In Study 2, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark could be concealed with makeup. These findings show that for children as young as age 3, decisions about whether to tell the truth are influenced by the likelihood that the information would be helpful to the recipient.

Messaging about descriptive and injunctive norms can promote honesty in young children

“…Future research will be needed to examine how our findings extend to other contexts, especially given evidence that children's judgments and behavior often show context sensitivity in this domain (Fu et al, 2008; Heyman et al, 2020; Sierksma et al, 2019; Warneken & Orlins, 2015; Williams et al, 2013). For example, Williams et al (2013) found that 6‐ to 9‐year‐olds were more likely to lie to hide their peeking behavior in the temptation resistance paradigm when interacting with unfamiliar adults than when interacting with their parents.…”

Emotion matters in early polite lies: Preschoolers’ polite lie‐telling in relation to cognitive and emotion‐related abilities

“…Regarding the role of sex, although girls were more adept at hiding their negative feelings (Cole, 1986; Davis, 1995; Saarni, 1984 ; Zanette et al., 2016), previous studies did not find a significant difference in boys’ and girls’ tendency to tell polite lies (e.g., Heyman et al., 2020; Talwar & Lee, 2002; Talwar et al., 2007 ). Thus, boys and girls may differ in their nonverbal deception but not in their verbal deception.…”

“…These inconsistent findings might be explained by the age range of participants. Most studies with significant results included a wide age range, from preschool age to school age (4 to 14 years old, Lavoie et al., 2017; 3 to 11 years old, Talwar et al., 2007), whereas most studies with non‐significant results included a relatively narrow age range, with mostly school‐age children (6 to 12 years old, Williams et al., 2016) or mostly preschoolers (3 to 6 years old, Heyman et al., 2020; 3 to 7 years old, Talwar & Lee, 2002; 5 and 7 years old, Talwar et al., 2019). One exception is the study by Xu et al.…”

Competitive Contexts Reduce Children’s Motivation to Tell White Lies Based on Big Data Analysis

“…From a very early age, children are taught to be honest, as lying has negative consequences [1,2]. However, parents also explicitly or implicitly teach children to hide the truth or to actively deceive to make others feel better [3,4]. Accordingly, children are socialized into telling white lies if they think honesty is not the best way of communicating.…”

“…White lie behavior is a violation of basic social moral standards, while maintaining the basic principles of interpersonal communication [8][9][10]. The use of white lies promotes the establishment and maintenance of more positive social connections between people [4,[11][12][13][14], and a discussion on white lies provides new perspectives on the study of communication skills in the socialization process of children [3,4].…”