Parenting that tells lies leads to an increase in children telling lies.

Instrumental lies, a type of lie told by parents to induce behavioral change, can lead to behavioral compliance, but a new study from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) shows that It has been suggested that children who are exposed to children are more likely to lie to their parents.

In a study of 564 parents and children in Singapore, researchers at NTU Singapore found that they were exposed to other types of parental lies, such as “white lies,” or “good job!” Did. Instilling positive emotions in children is not true, but it can also make children more likely to lie to their parents. However, in contrast to instrumental lies, this effect only occurs when children know they have been lied to.

These findings show that Journal of Experimental Child Psychology In January, researchers led by Associate Professor Setou Pei-Pei from NTU's Department of Psychology revealed how children process different types of parental lies during early childhood, and investigated lying as a parenting practice. , said it highlighted the need for further understanding of the relationship with child outcomes. Faculty of Social Sciences.

Associate Professor Seto, who is also director of NTU's Early Cognition Laboratory, said: “Our research shows that both instrumental lies and white lies told by parents can result in children lying to their parents. “On the other hand, we show that the effects of white lies were only seen in children.” This suggests that how children develop lying behavior may depend on how they understand and process the different types of lies told to them. suggests. ”

She goes on to say, “Given that parents are children's role models and educators, parents' lying behavior may indirectly encourage children's lying. “Even if it's a lie told to a child, it should give parents an opportunity to stop lying when raising their children.” May be interpreted as benign. ”

Other members of the research team include NTU Ph.D. student and principal investigator Petrina Lowe and Dr. Yena Kyung, visiting researcher in NTU's Early Cognition Laboratory.

Lies that parents tell to socialize their children

NTU researchers focused on informative lies and white lies for their study. Previous research has shown that these two types of parenting lies commonly appear across different cultures.

Instrumental lies take the form of false threats (“If you continue to misbehave, I'll call the police'') and false promises (“If you finish your homework, I'll take you to Disneyland''). There may be cases.

Parents often tell outright lies to induce positive emotions in their children, such as praising their children for a job they did well when in fact they did not.

How was the study conducted?

To investigate how parents' lies influence their children's dishonesty, NTU researchers conducted a major project aimed at empowering Singaporeans to strive for a healthier next generation. We surveyed 1,128 participants selected from the Growing Towards Healthy Outcomes in Singapore (GUSTO) study, a large-scale birth cohort study. .

Participants consisted of 564 children aged 11 to 12 and one parent. The researchers chose children in this age group because this is when children's concepts of lying become more sophisticated.

Participants were surveyed independently through a questionnaire to collect data on lying behavior from both child and parent perspectives.

In the first questionnaire regarding parental lies, participants were given a list of instrumental lies and white lies. A parent participant was asked if she had ever said something similar to her child on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). .

Child participants were asked to rate on the same 5-point scale whether they had ever told a similar lie and, if so, how much they believed the lie.

The second questionnaire assessed children's lying behavior. Child participants were asked how often they lied to their parents on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always). Parents were asked how often their child lied.

Each participant's scores are then tabulated to determine how parental lies are related to children's lying behavior and how this relationship is influenced by children's beliefs about lying. It was used for statistical analysis to determine.

Effects of parents' lies on children

The NTU study found that, based on data on child- and parent-reported parental lying behavior, the more children were told instrumental lies, the more likely they were to be told instrumental lies, regardless of whether the children knew they were lying. , suggesting that they were more likely to lie to their parents.

Researchers considered how instrumental lies affect children's obedience, and found that children exposed to such lies were more likely to believe that such lies were effective in achieving specific goals. They may have learned to lie more and become socialized to use more lies.

Another possible explanation is that the use of instrumental lies, which often have a coercive nature, arouses negative emotions in children and potentially strains parent-child relationships, thereby causing children to lie to their parents. This means that there may be a higher chance of it happening.

However, when it comes to white lies, children are more likely to lie to their parents, but only if they know they have been lied to.

The research team concluded, “Our results show that when exposure to white lies is coupled with the awareness of being lied to, children learn the appropriateness of lying behavior, thereby leading them to tell more lies to their parents.'' This suggests that there is a possibility.”

This study is one of the first to determine whether children believe or are aware of their parents' lies, providing a unique perspective on how children's lies affect parenting. . This study builds on Associate Professor Seto's work to build a body of knowledge about lying parenting and its impact on children.

One way to further advance this area of ​​research is to use longitudinal studies to chart the developmental trajectory of how children are socialized to lie, Seto said.

While the current study focuses on children's beliefs about their parents' lies, future research could build on this to examine other aspects of children's interpretation of their parents' lies and how different parental lies affect children's beliefs. It added that there is potential to investigate how it affects social-emotional outcomes.