Department of Psychology.
Dev Psychol. 2013 Oct;49(10):1958-63. doi: 10.1037/a0031409. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
Lying is a pervasive human behavior. Evidence to date suggests that from the age of 42 months onward, children become increasingly capable of telling lies in various social situations. However, there is limited experimental evidence regarding whether very young children will tell lies spontaneously. The present study investigated the emergence of lying in very young children. Sixty-five 2- to 3-year-olds were asked not to peek at a toy when the experimenter was not looking. The majority of children (80%) transgressed and peeked at the toy. When asked whether they had peeked at the toy, most 2-year-old peekers were honest and confessed to their peeking, but with increased age, more peekers denied peeking and thus lied. However, when asked follow-up questions that assessed their ability to maintain their initial lies, most children failed to conceal their lie by pretending to be ignorant of the toy's identity. Additionally, after controlling for age, children's executive functioning skills significantly predicted young children's tendency to lie. These findings suggest that children begin to tell lies at a very young age.
说谎是一种普遍的人类行为。迄今为止的证据表明，从 42 个月大开始，儿童在各种社会情境中越来越能够说谎。然而，关于非常年幼的儿童是否会自发说谎，实验证据有限。本研究调查了非常年幼的儿童说谎的出现。65 名 2 至 3 岁的儿童被要求在实验者不看时不要偷看玩具。大多数孩子（80%）违反规定并偷看了玩具。当被问到是否偷看了玩具时，大多数 2 岁的偷看者都诚实地承认了自己的偷看行为，但随着年龄的增长，更多的偷看者否认了偷看行为，从而撒谎。然而，当被问到后续问题以评估他们维持最初谎言的能力时，大多数孩子未能通过假装不知道玩具的身份来掩饰自己的谎言。此外，在控制年龄后，儿童的执行功能技能显著预测了儿童说谎的倾向。这些发现表明，儿童在很小的时候就开始说谎。
