Conduct Problems Are Linked to Antisocial, but Not Prosocial, Lying

What is it about?

Lying is a normal part of childhood, but frequent lying can also be associated with serious behaviour problems. This study examined whether children with different levels of conduct problems differ in how often they lie, what they think about lying, and how common they believe lying is among other people. The researchers studied 387 children between 6 and 12 years old. Children completed activities that measured how acceptable they thought truth-telling and lying were in different situations, including lying to hide wrongdoing and telling a “white lie” to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. They were also asked how often they thought other people lie. Parents reported how often their children told two types of lies: antisocial lies, which are told for selfish or antisocial purposes, and prosocial lies, which are intended to protect another person or avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Children with more conduct problems believed that other people lied more often and were reported by their parents to tell more antisocial lies. However, children with different levels of conduct problems did not differ in their moral evaluations of truth-telling and lying or in how often they told prosocial lies. Children with no conduct problems were reported to tell more prosocial than antisocial lies, whereas children with high levels of conduct problems showed the opposite pattern.

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Photo by Moses Vega on Unsplash

Photo by Moses Vega on Unsplash

Why is it important?

These findings show that not all lying should be treated as the same behaviour. Children with greater conduct problems did not simply lie more often in every situation. Instead, greater conduct problems were specifically associated with more frequent antisocial lying, while the frequency of prosocial lying was similar regardless of children’s level of conduct problems. The study also suggests that greater antisocial lying among children with conduct problems cannot simply be explained by these children believing that lying is more acceptable. Their moral evaluations of truth-telling and lying were similar to those of children with fewer or no conduct problems. This distinction is important for understanding why problematic patterns of lying develop and highlights the need to consider why a child is lying and the social context in which the lie occurs, rather than treating all lies as the same behaviour.