Practice makes perfect? The impact of coaching and moral stories on children’s lie-telling

What is it about?

In this study children between 4 and 7 years of age came into our research lab. While playing with a research confederate, the confederate opened up a toy box and took out the toys. The confederate then broke one of the toys. The confederate told the children that they were not supposed to have played with the toy box and asked the children to keep it a secret. Children were randomly assigned to a Coaching condition (i.e., No Coaching, Light Coaching, Heavy Coaching) which varied in the amount of time spent on coaching and rehearsal of a cover-up story. The confederate then left. Another researcher then read the children a story. Children were randomly assigned to a Moral Story condition (i.e., Positive or Neutral). The positive moral story emphasized the importance of being honest and the neutral story did not highlight honesty. The researcher then asked the children about what they did with the confederate. Overall, 89.7% of children lied about the broken toy when asked open-ended questions about the event. During direct questions, children in the Heavy Coaching condition lied more than children in the No Coaching and Light Coaching conditions. Older children were influenced by both Heavy and Light Coaching, whereas younger children were influenced only by Heavy Coaching. Children in the Positive Story condition were less likely to maintain their lies than those in the Neutral Story condition. An interaction between Coaching and Moral Story conditions influenced lie-maintenance. Thus, within Coaching conditions, there was only a Moral Story effect for the Light Coaching condition. However, there was no such effect for the No Coaching condition, where few children maintained their lie across questioning, nor for the Heavy Coaching condition, where coaching significantly increased children’s lie-maintenance regardless of the Moral Story condition

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Why is it important?

The current study was the first to investigate children’s willingness and abilities to lie on behalf of another person, given varying amounts of adult coaching to lie and a moral story pertaining to the importance of honesty. The results suggest that degree of coaching may have a differential impact on children’s ability to maintain their reports depending on question type and age. Specifically, extensive coaching improves children’s ability to conceal information when asked direct questions. This effect is particularly influential in younger children, who normally have difficulty with lie-telling and maintenance in comparison to their older peers. When younger children do not receive extensive coaching, our findings suggest their lies can still be detected through direct questioning.

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