It is bad news for parents – adults are far worse at telling when a child is lying than thought, researchers have found.
In fact, you may as well guess, they concluded.
Researchers discovered on average adults were able to distinguish truth from lies 54 per cent of the time, making them only slightly more successful than chance.
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On average adults were able to distinguish truth from lies 54 per cent of the time. One reason for the poor performance is simply that children looked guilty – even if they weren’t, the team said.
The major new study into children and lying builds on previous studies that have shown that children learn to lie from the age of two.
The University of California, Irvine, team analysed the results of 45 experiments into detecting deception in children up to the age of 15.
They involved almost 8,000 adult ‘judges’ — many of them parents — and almost 2,000 children.
They found that on average adults were able to distinguish truth from lies 54 per cent of the time.
One reason for the poor performance is simply that children looked guilty – even if they weren’t, the team said.
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‘Adults view behaviours such as gaze aversion, fidgeting, nervousness, incoherent responses and facial expressions as being indicative of someone lying,’ they wrote in the journal Law and Human Behaviour, according to The Times.
‘These often mean different things, particularly in young children.’
For instance, they say gaze aversion is commonly viewed as a sign of deception in adults.
‘Yet gaze aversion in children can occur when tasks are particularly difficult.
HOW THEY DID IT
The majority of the experiments were based on a classic experiment known as temptation resistance.
The majority of the experiments were based on a classic experiment known as temptation resistance.
A young child is left alone in a room with an exciting toy put behind them, and told not to turn around and look at it.
Observers then leave the room, and watch the child.
On returning, the child is asked if they have looked.
Sometimes a further question is added, in which they are asked to ‘guess’ the name of the toy.
Many subjects who did look at the toy then construct a more elaborate lie to cover their tracks.
‘In other words, the cues on which adults rely to evaluate honesty often are not valid.’
‘[There are] reasons to suspect that children’s more limited cognitive and deceptive abilities would render their true and false statements more easily discernible,’ they write.
In a separate study, researchers investigated the ways in which a child’s moral understanding develops, finding their perception of truth and lies changes over time.
While a young child may view these concepts starkly, with dishonesty always seen as ‘bad,’ an older child is likely to have a more nuanced view, and will consider the intent and outcome of a situation.
Telling a small lie to spare someone from bad feelings may seem like the right thing to do, but ask a young child, and your actions might not be considered so virtuous. In a new study, researchers found children’s perception of truth and lies changes over time
WHAT THE STUDY FOUND
Overall, the children were easily able to distinguish between truth and lies, regardless of age.
In deciding which behaviours to reward or condemn, however, the researchers noted two significant differences among the age groups.
When assessing a ‘false confession’ scenario, in which a character would claim responsibility for another character’s misdeed to spare the real perpetrator, the younger children were more likely to view this as negative behaviour than older kids.
A similar trend was seen in the case of tattling.
While younger children were less concerned with the negative consequences of truth-telling, older children were often conflicted.
Researchers from McGill University analyzed the behaviour of nearly 100 children between the ages of six and 12.
The children were each shown a series of short videos featuring childlike puppets which either told the truth or lied.
And, the outcome of these decisions varied.
In some scenarios, telling a lie would cause harm to another character, while in others, a lie intended to help someone else would have a negative outcome for the speaker.
The researchers also showed videos of puppets telling different truths – including ‘tattling’ – highlighting how these can harm someone as well.
Then, the kids were asked to decide if the characters were being honest or deceitful, and choose whether those particular behaviours should be rewarded or punished.
‘Looking at how children see honesty and deceit is a way of gaining insight into different stages of moral and social development,’ said Victoria Talwar, a Canada Research Chair in McGill’s Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.
According to the researchers, as children get older, they may become more concerned with how these decisions will affect others, and how certain truths might be perceived by their peers, as in the case of tattling
‘Children get a lot of messages from their parents saying that lying is always bad, but at the same time they see their parents telling ‘white lies’ to make life easier. Depending on their age, this is likely to be a bit confusing for children.
‘We were interested in gaining a more nuanced picture of children’s perceptions of truth and lies – since not all lies have negative consequences for the other person, and not all truths have positive consequences for someone else. We were curious to know at what age children start to understand this.’
Overall, the children were easily able to distinguish between truth and lies, regardless of age.
In deciding which behaviours to reward or condemn, however, the researchers noted two significant differences among the age groups.
When assessing a ‘false confession’ scenario, in which a character would claim responsibility for another character’s misdeed to spare the real perpetrator, the younger children were more likely to view this as negative behaviour than older kids.
A similar trend was seen in the case of tattling.
While younger children were less concerned with the negative consequences of truth-telling, older children were often conflicted.
Younger children may make their decisions based on what they are told by parents and caregivers, reflecting a black-and-white view of lies and truth. In the study, younger children were less concerned with the negative consequences of ‘tattling’
‘What we were seeing is children’s confusion around particular kinds of truths and lies,’ says Shanna Mary Williams.
‘Younger children see things more starkly – truths are good and lies are bad. But by the time they are 10-12 years old, children become more aware that truth and lies are less binary.
‘The older they are, the more interested children are in the consequences of these actions. They are also more able to start looking at the intentions behind the speech.’
Younger children may make their decisions based on what they are told by parents and caregivers, reflecting a black-and-white view of lies and truth.
As children get older, they may become more concerned with how these decisions will affect others, and how certain truths might be perceived by their peers, as in the case of tattling.