Moral Stories and Young Children’s Confession of Misdeeds in Relation to Their Perception of Honesty and Its Consequences

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effect of moral stories on children’s honesty during a temptation resistance paradigm in a large sample of 3 to 6-year-olds (N = 296). Both children and their parents were also asked to anticipate if a child vignette protagonist would confess to a minor misdeed and also to predict the consequences of this potential confession. Research Findings: Moral stories emphasizing positive or negative consequences for confessions of a misdeed did not significantly alter children’s deceptive behavior. Moreover, the protagonist’s expected confession in the vignette also proved unrelated to children’s own transgression (peeking), subsequent lying behavior, or to their subsequent confession of the transgression in the temptation resistance paradigm. Parents and children concurred in anticipating that the vignette protagonist would confess. However, while most children expected aversive consequences for the protagonist confession (punishment), most parents expected non-aversive, positive ones (mainly praise and encouragement). Practice or Policy: Our results do not support the benefits of reading moral stories about fictional characters for promoting honesty. Children and parents had divergent interpretations of the consequences of confessions. Practices encouraging honest behavior should reduce punitive behaviors and reward children’s truth telling, which is not what most children consider to be the case, despite their parents’ views on the topic.