What Is a Lie? Children’s Use of Intentions and Consequences in Lexical Definitions and Moral Evaluations of Lying

Abstract

The temptation to tell a lie is likely to arise so often in children’s normal social interactions that, on the basis of frequency alone, it undoubtedly stands out from most of the other moral transgressions that children are called on to resist. Piaget (1932) argued that “lies present to the child’s mind a far graver and more pressing problem than do clumsiness or even such exceptional actions as stealing” (p. 135). In addition to sheer opportunity, Piaget felt that the lie’s salience as a moral temptation reflected the fact that “the tendency to tell lies is a natural and spontaneous tendency, so spontaneous and universal that we can take it as an essential part of the child’s egocentric thought” (p. 135). But as if this were not enough, the adult aiming to socialize children to avoid lying is likely to have an additional problem to contend with. Most everyday instructional or punitive interventions by parents, teachers, and other adult disciplinarians are guided by the assumption that a child’s understanding of words such as lies, truth, and honesty matches the meanings of these terms in the adult lexicon. Thus, discipline normally strives more to create the motivation to be honest than to explicate the underlying meanings of lying or telling the truth. Recent research, however, suggests that this popular assumption is flawed.