The role of empathy in children's costly prosocial lie‐telling behaviour

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to examine the role of induced empathy and parent‐reported empathy (i.e., affective and cognitive) as underlying motives for children's prosocial lie‐telling tendencies. An experimental paradigm was used to elicit prosocial lies in children (N = 146, 7–11 years) in varying cost (low‐cost/high‐cost) and induction (empathy/neutral) conditions. Results indicate that induced empathy predicts prosocial lie likelihood and maintenance in low‐cost conditions, and that cognitive empathy is a predictor of lie‐likelihood. Post‐hoc analyses revealed that a large portion of children chose to prosocially share with the distressed confederate, regardless of whether they lied for them. Individuals who shared were more likely to share in low‐cost conditions, and also had higher cognitive empathy. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the role of empathy as an underlying cognitive process for children's prosocial decision‐making.Highlights The role of empathy was examined in relation to children's prosocial lying and sharing behaviour in low‐ and high‐cost conditions. Parent‐reported cognitive empathy predicted both lying and sharing in an experimental paradigm; induced empathy only predicted lying in low‐cost conditions. Overall, empathy proved to be an important underlying motive for children's prosocial decision‐making.