Lying by children: why children say one thing, do another?

Area of Science:

• Child psychology
• Behavioral science

Background:

• Lying is a common developmental challenge for children.
• Understanding the behavioral underpinnings of lying is crucial for effective intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a relational definition of lying.
• To explore correspondence training as a method for teaching truthfulness in children.

Main Methods:

• Analyzing lying as a lack of correspondence between saying and doing.
• Designing correspondence training procedures (promise-then-do or do-then-report).

Main Results:

• Correspondence training can be effectively applied to teach truthfulness.
• The proposed relational definition of lying offers practical applications.

Conclusions:

• Lying can be addressed by training correspondence between actions and reports.
• Correspondence training shows promise for promoting truthfulness in children.