Honest kids judged more harshly by adults

Honest kids judged more harshly by adults


Many of us know the saying that the truth will set you free. But, for children, telling the blunt truth instead of lying gets them judged more harshly by adults.

That’s the main message of recent findings by Texas State University researchers, who tracked the attitudes of nearly 300 adults in the northeastern United States. The adults were shown videos of children, ages 6 to 15, who were telling the truth or lying in various social situations.

The 24 children in the study were told to lie for a variety of reasons. One scenario involved a child lying about where a sibling was hiding after getting in trouble with their parents. The children acted out several variations of lies or truths, including a blatant lie that the sibling had gone to the library. A subtler lie was that the sibling had gone to bed. A subtle truth was the sister went outside, while the blunt truth was that she was hiding under the porch.

After watching the videos, the adults gave their impressions of the child’s character, including their honesty, trustworthiness and kindness. Perhaps surprisingly, the adults reserved their harshest judgment for the children who told the blunt truth.

So, do the adults’ responses go against parents’ typical advice to always tell the truth? The answers from the study suggest that scenario isn’t always so cut and dried.

The researchers say their findings reveal that children learn about honesty in a complicated environment. Kids sometimes learn that it’s wrong to lie but also that it’s sometimes unkind to be brutally honest.

Considering those somewhat mixed messages, the researchers say, it’s not surprising that children can sometimes engage in some nuanced truth-fudging.

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