White Lie Behavior And Development Of Primary School Children Under Different Conflict Of Interest Situations

White lies,also known as lies of kindness,are a special kind of pro-social behavior that occurs in interpersonal interactions.Its particularity lies in that it not only violates the moral principle of"don't lie,be an honest person",but also maintains the moral principle of "don't put some possibility The principle of interpersonal communication is to speak up and say what hurts the other person's truth.In the behavior of white lie,individuals may need to sacrifice their own interests or not.At the same time,individuals may benefit from it or not benefit from it.Therefore,this paper divides the white lie situation of primary school children into an interpersonal situation(personal interests do not conflict with others' interests)and conflict situation(personal interests conflict with others' interests).The situation in which personal interests and others' interests do not conflict can be divided into the situation of benefiting others without harming oneself and the situation of benefiting others for oneself.The situation in which personal interests conflict with others' interests is further divided into single conflict and multiple conflicts.Through four studies,we systematically discussed the white lie behavior of children along two main lines,in order to further explore the psychological mechanism behind the white lie behavior of primary school students in different grades.The first mainline focused on the forms of conflict of interest between self and others in children's white lie behavior,from no conflict to single conflict,and then to multiple conflicts.The second mainline focused on the cost level of children's white lie behavior,from no cost to low cost,and then to high cost.The first study investigated pupils' white lie motivation in different grades under the situation of benefiting others and not harming themselves,which was by manipulating the different expectation types of the evaluated objects for their works and the familiarity.The results showed that :(1)primary school children were more likely to tell white lies when the other party attached emotional expectation to their works;(2)Under the condition of target expectation,the white lie behavior of high-grade primary school children was more rational than that of low-grade primary school children.The other-oriented white lie motivation would guide the senior pupils to conduct cost-effect analysis for each other based on the principle of maximizing the overall goal;(3)Peer familiarity affected white lie behavior of primary school children.In the second study,a self-interested situation was created.In this situation,children who chose to tell white lies benefited not only others but also themselves.This study designed two experimental situations,one of which was the interpersonal interaction situation where others were present,and the other was the interpersonal situation where others had patronized children.The second study mainly aimed two purposes: on the one hand,to investigate whether children were sensitive to interpersonal situations when they told white lies;On the other hand,to see if children were aware of the hidden benefits of telling white lies.The results showed that :(1)compared with the absence of others,children would engage in more white lying behaviors in the presence of others;(2)Children were encouraged to engage in more white lying than a control group;(3)The elder the children were,the more sensitive they were to the situation,and the older the children were,the more likely they were to commit white lie than the younger children in the presence of others and the situation of others' favor.The third study created a single conflict situation between individual interests and others' interests.In this situation,if children choose to tell white lies to others,they would have to pay a price.Meanwhile,the cost types of children's white lie behavior were further divided into spiritual cost and material cost.Spiritual costs were caused by competition,material costs were caused by material rewards.The third study,it had set different levels for both costs.The purpose was to understand the true prosocial motivation behind the white lie behavior of primary school children by weighing the benefits of two different levels of cost.The results showed that :(1)when the psychological cost caused by competition with others or the material cost caused by high material cost conflicted with children's prosocial motivation,primary school children were likely to give up white lie behavior and choose true expression;(2)There was a significant age difference in children's white lie behavior in the conflict situation caused by material cost or mental cost,and the children of higher grade cared more about the high material cost and the mental cost caused by competition with others than the children of lower grade.In the fourth study,two kinds of multiple conflict situations caused by different inducing modes were created.One was induced by prosocial reputation and the other by patronizing behavior.To explore the psychological mechanism behind children's white lie telling at the cost of self-sacrifice,we investigated the change of white lie behavior of pupils in different grades in these two conflict situations.The results showed that :(1)In the prosocial name-induced conflict situation,which had significant interaction.Compared with the white lie behavior in the conflict situation without prosocial name-induced.There were more white lie behaviors among primary school children in terms of prosocial name-induced,and their reaction time was longer;(2)In the conflict situation induced by others' giving behavior,the main effect of grade and the experimental situation was significant.Whether the other party chooses the right one had a significant interaction with the grade,and whether the other party chooses the right one had a significant interaction with the experimental situation.Compared with the white lie behavior in the conflict situation without others' intervention,the children in the conflict situation with others' intervention showed more white lie behavior and longer reaction time.To sum up,this paper drew the following conclusions :(1)In the context of no conflict between self-interests and others' interests,children's white lie behavior was to avoid bringing negative emotions to listeners or being oriented by others' interests.Certain situational factors,such as the familiarity of the partner and the presence or absence of the partner,were also considered when telling white lies;(2)When self-interests conflict with others' interests,children would fully weigh the cost of telling white lies before they choose white lies;(3)With the growth of age,the moral development of primary school children presents a spiral upward trend.In the context of conflict of interest,the gradual regression of white lie behavior of senior pupils was synchronized with the reciprocal psychology developed by their transformation from heteromedical morality to self-discipline morality at this stage;(4)The white lie behavior of primary school children in conflict situations seemed to be a pro-social behavior of harming themselves and benefiting others,but,it was an indirect reciprocity behavior.They would find a balance point between harming themselves and benefiting others,which was beneficial to both the other party and themselves.