Rethinking Lying in Adolescents with Conduct Disorder

What is it about?

This study examined lying in adolescents with conduct disorder, a behavioural disorder characterized by persistent rule-breaking and behaviours that violate the rights of others. Although frequent lying is commonly associated with conduct disorder, there has been little research directly observing whether adolescents with conduct disorder actually lie more often than other adolescents. The researchers studied 115 adolescents between 13 and 16 years old, including 58 diagnosed with conduct disorder and 57 typically developing adolescents. Participants completed a task that gave them opportunities to lie for personal gain by claiming to have successfully completed a challenge in order to earn more points and prizes. The researchers also measured three thinking skills known as executive functions: inhibitory control, which involves stopping an automatic response; cognitive flexibility, which involves shifting between different ideas or strategies; and working memory, which involves holding and working with information in mind. Adolescents with conduct disorder did not lie more frequently than typically developing adolescents. Instead, some of the thinking skills associated with lying differed between the two groups. Better inhibitory control was associated with less frequent lying in both groups. However, among adolescents with conduct disorder, greater cognitive flexibility was associated with more frequent lying, whereas cognitive flexibility was not related to lying frequency among typically developing adolescents. Working memory was not related to how often adolescents lied.

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Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Lying is often considered an important feature of conduct disorder, but this study shows that the relationship may be more complicated than simply assuming that adolescents with conduct disorder lie more often. When adolescents were given the same opportunity to lie for personal gain, those with conduct disorder were no more likely to lie than their typically developing peers. The findings also suggest that the thinking processes associated with lying may differ between adolescents with and without conduct disorder. In particular, cognitive flexibility was related to more frequent lying only among adolescents with conduct disorder, while better inhibitory control was related to less frequent lying in both groups. This suggests that different aspects of executive functioning may play different roles in adolescents’ decisions to lie. Understanding these cognitive processes may help researchers better understand why persistent lying occurs in some young people and how dishonesty relates to behavioural difficulties. The findings also show the importance of studying different types of lies and different situations rather than treating all dishonesty as the same. This research provides a foundation for future studies examining how lying and the thinking processes associated with it change across development and may ultimately contribute to better approaches for supporting young people with behavioural difficulties.