By
Emily Severson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Lying seems to increase with age, researcher says.
A study done by the School of Family and Consumer Sciences has found that children lie even though they think it is morally wrong.
The researchers wanted to find out why children lie and how it fits into their social interactions.
"We decided to do the research because parents tend to tell their kids that lying is bad, when statistically they use white lies all the time. We wanted to see whether children are capable of making the same distinction," said Wendy Gamble, an associate professor of family and consumer sciences and the adviser for the project. "White lies are almost universally accepted among adults, but lying is considered naughty in children and a precursor to other behavioral problems."
Children tend to tell all four types of lies that were studied - pro-social, self-enhancement, selfish and anti-social - more as they get older, Gamble said.
The results showed a tendency for children to tell more pro-social lies among their peers and more selfish lies to their parents.
Julie Wang, the investigative researcher for the project, said that something specifically stands out in her mind about the field research.
"I felt like, in general, the older kids were more likely to tell us the truth," Wang said. "I felt that a lot of the younger kids were lying to me, because they said things like I would never tell a lie. I think the younger kids saw us as an authority figure and were worried they would get in trouble if they admitted to lying."
Wang said she thought that the older children evaluated each situation and considered who they would be lying to, whether the lie would hurt someone's feelings, the seriousness of the lie and how it would make them feel.
"When you look at a child's moral sense, children in younger age groups are likely to see the issues in black and white." said Amy Learmonth, a developmental researcher in the UA psychology department. "Older children can see the gray areas."
This topic of lying is pertinent to classes that Gamble teaches at the University of Arizona.
"I teach child development classes, so this is an ideal topic because it points out the discrepancy in how adults try to socialize children and how they actually behave," she said. "That is definitely something I would talk about in class."
Gamble is hoping to do a follow-up study to see how parents, culture and socioeconomic influence lying.
"Next time, I would like to talk to more parents," Gamble said. "We had information just from kids this time and not about what the parents thought."
The researchers studied both positive and negative types of lies among 98 Tucson school children last year. The research was conducted through individual interviews during after-school programs in public and private schools. The younger kids were between six and eight years old, and the older group was made up of nine to 11-year-olds.
The field research was mainly done by Wang and two undergraduate students. The children were asked several sets of questions in which they could lie or tell the truth, Wang said.
The project took about a year and a half, beginning in January 1999, Wang said.
The study was funded by the UA Agriculture Experiment Station seed money, which are funds used to start projects. However, Gamble hopes to get more money for a follow-up study through a different source.
