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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
Published on: May 3, 2016
Parenting by lying
Gail D Heyman1, Diem H Luu, Kang Lee
1University of California, San Diego, USA.
None:
The present set of studies identifies the phenomenon of `parenting by lying', in which parents lie to their children as a means of influencing their emotional states and behaviour. In Study 1, undergraduates (n = 127) reported that their parents had lied to them while maintaining a concurrent emphasis on the importance of honesty. In Study 2 (n = 127), parents reported lying to their children and considered doing so to be acceptable under some circumstances, even though they also reported teaching their children that lying is unacceptable. As compared to European American parents, Asian American parents tended to hold a more favourable view of lying to children for the purpose of promoting behavioural compliance.
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