An international group of scientists from Germany and the UK has studied the factors that determine children’s tendency to lie. The study was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Economics Journal (EJ).
The team conducted a simple experiment. A group of children were asked to think of a number from one to six and then roll a die. If the guess and the result matched, the child was given a small amount of money. No one watched the participants during the tests, so the young people could be sure that their lies would not be detected.
The researchers then analyzed the results using statistical methods.
“If everyone was telling the truth, around one-sixth of the participants, or 16.7%, would have guessed correctly. But in fact more than 60% said that the guess and the result of the dice matched. This means that a significant proportion of children were lying to us,” explained Johannes Abeler, one of the authors of the paper from the University of Oxford.
When scientists looked at children’s social backgrounds, differences in their willingness to lie became clear.
People from wealthy families were found to be more honest than those from less wealthy parents, and honesty also depended on the warmth of the upbringing and the level of trust in the family environment.
According to scientists, this discovery shows that it is possible to instill the habit of honesty in a child at an early age with a series of measures.
It’s happened before knownEven harmless lies can teach children to be dishonest and deceptive.
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
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