Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ontario Tech University, Canada.
School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2021 Jul;218:103339. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103339. Epub 2021 May 28.
The Decision component of the Activation-Decision-Construction-Action-Theory (ADCAT) utilizes a cost-benefit formula to explain the cognitive, motivational and social processes involved in deception. Three prior studies suggest that ADCAT can be used to predict adults' future deceptive behavior; however, no study has assessed the potential relevance of ADCAT with children. The present study is the first to date to examine whether this cost-benefit formula can predict children's hypothetical decisions to tell three types of lies, and whether there are specific developmental factors that need to be considered. The results indicate that the cost-benefit formula was only effective for predicting children's hypothetical lies for self-gain at no cost to another (Self-No Cost lies) and lies for others when there was a personal cost (Other-Cost to Self). More specifically, expected value of telling the truth was related to lower willingness to tell hypothetical Self-No Cost and Other-Cost to Self lies. On the other hand, the expected value of lying was not related to children's hypothetical decisions to tell Self-No Cost, Self-Cost to Other or Other-Cost to Self lies. Children's inhibitory control and theory of mind were significant covariates for some of the ADCAT predictor variables and children's hypothetical truth and lying behaviors. Altogether, these findings indicate that the effectiveness of the ADCAT cost-benefit formula for predicting children's lying behavior is affected by developmental factors and the type of lie being analyzed.
ADCAT（激活-决策-建构-行动理论）的决策部分利用成本效益公式来解释欺骗行为中涉及的认知、动机和社会过程。三项先前的研究表明，ADCAT 可用于预测成年人未来的欺骗行为；然而，尚无研究评估 ADCAT 与儿童的潜在相关性。本研究是迄今为止首次检验该成本效益公式是否可以预测儿童做出三种假设性说谎行为的决策，以及是否需要考虑特定的发展因素。结果表明，该成本效益公式仅能有效预测儿童在无他人成本的自利情况下做出的假设性谎言（自无成本谎言）和当个人有成本时为他人做出的谎言（对自我的他人成本）。更具体地说，说实话的预期价值与较低的自无成本和对自我的他人成本的假设性说谎意愿相关。另一方面，说谎的预期价值与儿童做出假设性的自无成本、自他成本和对自我的他人成本说谎的决定无关。儿童的抑制控制和心理理论是一些 ADCAT 预测变量和儿童真实和说谎行为的重要协变量。总的来说，这些发现表明，ADCAT 成本效益公式预测儿童说谎行为的有效性受到发展因素和所分析的谎言类型的影响。
