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"The dog ate my homework." "He started it." "Iˈm sick today." "Sheˈs not here." Children tell these lies frequently, often to avoid punishment, get rid of embarrassment or even protect someone. Even though children and adults seem to tell lies for the same reasons, childrenˈs lying tends to be thought more often as morally wrong, according to Wendy Gamble, a professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Professor Gamble suggests, "A tendency (趋势) to lie or cheat will influence the way children form and maintain relationships with others. Honesty is the basis of effective communication and healthy relationships. Rather than dismiss all lies as bad, however, we should put these lies in social contexts and admit that some of them are common and frequently socially acceptable." She adds that parents need to discuss this issue in terms of when and to whom it might be appropriate to lie, instead of saying lying is absolutely wrong at any time.
In order to find out more about why children lie and how that fits into their social interactions, Professor Gamble studied both positive and negative types of lies among 98 school children in Tucson. All of the students participated voluntarily, with their parentsˈ permission.
Results from the study showed that truth-telling exceeded (超过) lying for all of the children, but they also showed lying increased with age, and that the lies were mostly told to benefit someone. Very few of them were meant to hurt someone.
Professor Gamble reminds us that these results are primary and that more studies are needed particularly to make sure parentsˈ roles in childrenˈs lying and determine the effects of cultural differences on childrenˈs lying. "Weˈd also like to study why some children continue to lie even when it does not seem to serve any purpose", Professor Gamble says, "And because the children in the study were mostly from middle—class backgrounds，the next step would be to look at cultural difierences．"
Title：Prolessor Gambleˈs studv on childrenˈs lying
