Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling
Published on: April 6, 2018
Children's Tattling: the reporting of everyday norm violations in preschool settings
Gordon P D Ingram1, Jesse M Bering
1Ingram, Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. gingram02@qub.ac.uk
Abstract:
Tattling, defined as the reporting to a second party of norm violations committed by a third party, is a frequent but little-studied activity among young children. Participant observation and quantitative sampling are used to provide a detailed characterization of tattling in 2 preschools (initial mean age = 4.08 years, N = 40). In these populations, tattling represents the majority of talk about peers' behavior to third parties. It is usually truthful, it rarely refers to transgressions committed against other individuals, it is not often ignored by adults, it is performed more frequently by dominant children, and it correlates with teacher reports of relational aggression. These exploratory results suggest several new avenues of research into children's developing understanding of social norms.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Naturalistic Observations
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Conduct Disorder
Bullying
Observational Learning
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...

