Department of Psychology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
Department of Psychology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Oct;198:104906. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104906. Epub 2020 Jul 4.
The ability to deceive others is an early-emerging and socially complex skill, but relatively little is known about when and how a social partner's identity affects young children's willingness to lie. To understand how group membership affects children's lying, we used a minimal group paradigm to examine children's willingness to deceive in-group and out-group members across varied contexts that systematically varied in their costs and benefits. A total of 69 children aged 4 to 7 years played three versions of a sticker-hiding game: a Self-Benefit scenario (child could lie for personal gain), an Other-Benefit scenario (child could lie to help someone else), and a No-Benefit scenario (child could lie to spite someone else). Children lied the most in the Self-Benefit scenario, lying equally to in-group and out-group members in this context. When the potential for self-gain disappeared, however, in-group bias emerged. In the Other-Benefit scenario, children lied more to out-group members in order to help in-group members. Even when the potential to help another was removed (the No-Benefit scenario), children still engaged in more lie telling to out-group members. Results suggest that children's lying is sensitive to group membership, but only in certain social situations, as children's desire to benefit themselves may outweigh in-group bias. Future research should examine alternate contexts, such as lying to avoid punishment, to determine when group membership is most salient. Overall, results indicate that young children are able to flexibly apply a complex social cognitive skill based on group membership and contextual demands, with implications for social behavior and intergroup relations throughout development.
欺骗他人的能力是一种早期出现且具有社会复杂性的技能，但人们对社会伙伴的身份何时以及如何影响幼儿说谎的意愿知之甚少。为了了解群体归属如何影响儿童的说谎行为，我们使用最小群体范式，在不同的情境中考察儿童在群体内和群体外成员之间说谎的意愿，这些情境在成本和收益方面都有所不同。共有 69 名 4 至 7 岁的儿童参与了三个贴纸隐藏游戏版本：自利情境（儿童可以为个人利益撒谎）、他利情境（儿童可以撒谎帮助他人）和无利情境（儿童可以撒谎激怒他人）。在自利情境中，儿童撒谎最多，在这种情境下，他们平等地对群体内和群体外成员撒谎。然而，当自我收益的可能性消失时，群体偏见就出现了。在他利情境中，儿童为了帮助群体内成员而更多地对群体外成员撒谎。即使潜在的帮助他人的机会被取消（无利情境），儿童仍然更倾向于对群体外成员撒谎。研究结果表明，儿童的说谎行为对群体归属很敏感，但仅在某些社交情境中，因为儿童自身利益的欲望可能超过群体偏见。未来的研究应该考察其他情境，例如为了避免惩罚而说谎，以确定群体归属何时最为突出。总的来说，研究结果表明，幼儿能够根据群体归属和情境需求灵活运用复杂的社会认知技能，这对整个发展过程中的社会行为和群体间关系都有影响。
