It’s hard for children to accept a teacher’s lies: Implications of authority on children’s evaluation of lies

Abstract

In recent years, extensive research has been conducted on the development of children’s lying cognition. Yet, little is known about how the identity of a liar impacts children’s understanding of lies. The present study examined how the identity of liars and motives for telling lies (prosocial or antisocial) affect children’s judgment and evaluation of lies. To this end, children aged 7–11 (N = 105) were asked to rate and judge different motives of lies told by authority figures (teachers) and non-authority figures (peers) in a virtual story situation. In addition, children's attitudes about different liars were assessed. Results showed that children aged 7–11 are highly accurate at detecting lies, especially antisocial lies from teachers. As age increased, children evaluated prosocial lie-telling more positively and antisocial lie-telling more negatively.Furthermore, all age groups disagreed with teachers’ deceptive behaviors, and judged teachers’ lies more harshly than those told by peers.