The Nice Kids Who Lie
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By Jaime Herndon
If there’s one undeniable truth about kids, it’s that they can be unflinchingly honest.
Two researchers at Harvard, Emily Orlins and Felix Warneken, recently published a study in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology that found that children sometimes don’t tell the truth when they know it will hurt someone else. The study looked at kids, ranging in ages from 5 to 11, and presented them with an adult who drew messy pictures for them. The children had to separate the drawings into two piles: a good pile and bad pile. The adult would ask the children which pile her picture belonged in. When the adult commented on how sad she was about how bad her drawings were, kids of all ages were more likely to tell her they’d put her drawing in the “good” pile, compared with when the adult said she was okay with how bad her drawings were. Of note, older kids were more likely than younger ones to lie to the researcher.
This ties in to a study previously conducted, that even children as young as three know there are “white lies” told to protect peoples’ feelings. Have you noticed your nieces or nephews telling “white lies” to protect your feelings, or someone else’s feelings?
Published: April 14, 2015
Photo: Flynt