ABSTRACT

Adults deliver mixed messages to children about the acceptability of truth- and lie-telling across contexts. To probe this discrepancy, we investigated how adults evaluate children’s truths and lies across various situations. Participants watched videos of children telling prosocial lies or hurtful truths that varied in their directness (blunt or subtle) and whether they were polite in nature or protective. They then provided impressions of each child and indicated whether they would reward or punish them. Results revealed a veracity by directness interaction, as blunt truth-tellers were judged most negatively when compared to liars and subtle truth-tellers, but only for polite lies. For protective scenarios, directness was not as influential. Further, participants said they would reward subtle truth-telling most. Results painted a complex picture of how children’s prosocial lies are perceived and likely socialized, highlighting the importance of circumstances and manner in which lies and truths are delivered.

摘要

成人向孩子们传达了关于跨环境说真话和说谎的可接受性的混合信息。为了探究这种差异，我们调查了成年人如何在各种情况下评估儿童的真相和谎言。参与者观看了儿童讲述亲社会谎言或伤害性真相的视频，这些谎言或伤害性真相的直接性（直率或微妙）以及他们是否有礼貌或保护性各不相同。然后，他们提供了每个孩子的印象，并表明他们会奖励还是惩罚他们。结果通过直接互动揭示了真实性，因为与说谎者和微妙的说真话者相比，直率的说真话者受到的评价最为负面，但仅限于礼貌的谎言。对于保护性场景，直接性没有那么有影响力。此外，参与者表示，他们最会奖励微妙的说真话。