Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling
Published on: April 6, 2018
Lying and truth-telling in children: from concept to action
Fen Xu1, Xuehua Bao, Genyue Fu
1BNU State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning.
None:
Although there has been extensive research on children's moral knowledge about lying and truth-telling and their actual lie- or truth-telling behaviors, research to examine the relation between these two is extremely rare. This study examined one hundred and twenty 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds' moral understanding of lies and their actual lying behaviors in a politeness situation. Results revealed that as age increased, children increasingly evaluated others' lying in politeness situations less negatively and were more inclined to tell lies in such situations themselves. Contrary to previous findings, children's sociomoral knowledge about lying was significantly related to their actual behaviors, particularly when children's rationales underlying their moral judgments were consistent with their motives for actual lie- or truth-telling in the politeness situation.
Related Concept Videos
Understanding Deception
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Impression Management Techniques III: Aligning Actions
Social Foundations of Self I: Play and Game
Bullying
Observational Learning

