Children who tell blunt truth, as opposed to lying, are judged more harshly by adults

New findings, out today, suggest children who tell blunt truths such as “I don’t want this present — it’s ugly!” are judged more harshly by adults than those who bend the truth to be polite or protect others.

Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Moral Education, the research demonstrates the mixed messages that adults are giving children about lying versus telling the truth in different contexts.

“This research tends to show there exists a complicated relationship with the truth that children must navigate to learn what is socially acceptable,” explains lead author Dr Laure Brimbal from the School of Criminal Justice & Criminology, at Texas State University.

“Most parents will have been embarrassed or upset by their children’s brutal honesty at some point. Learning to tell lies is a normal part of children’s social development.”

She adds: “Children are taught that lying is wrong, nevertheless they develop the ability to tell lies from an early age. To date, we know little about the mechanisms and processes that underlie the development and shaping of the critical social skill of prosocial lying, despite conflicting messages from adults about the acceptability of lying as opposed to truth-telling.

“What our results reveal is that children are learning about honesty in a quite complicated environment. It appears to be an important social skill to lie to fit in with other’s expectations, but this is in despite of potential conflicting messages from their adult caregivers that it is wrong to lie… whilst in addition, it is sometimes is perceived as unkind to be honest.”

The results follow 267 adults, from Northeast US, being shown videos of children, aged 6 to 15, telling the truth or lying in various social situations.

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