| From the initial study of lying by Piaget, many researchers had studied lie-telling behavior widely in different fields. There has been extensive research on the development of lying that dates back to the beginning of developmental psychology. The development of lying has received increasing attention in recent years by developmental psychologists and their main researches are such as the time when children could understand its theoretical and ethical implications, the time when children could emerge lie-telling behavior, the relations between the lie-telling behavior and social and cognitive factors(such as IQ, Executive function, theory of mind). However, the research for children’s actual lie-telling behavior, lying motivation, and understanding of its mechanism are limited. As the studies for children’s lie-telling behavior become more and more popular, how the lie-telling behavior emerge and the mechanism of lying are receiving more attention.Based on previous studies, a "I win you lose" game adapted from "the window task" paradigm, the standard theory of mind tasks, the executive functioning tasks and IQ test were used in the present study. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the lie-telling behavior and the cognitive factors for the children about2-to4-year-old, and we also investigate the early emergence and generating process of self-benefiting lies. This study composed by two experiments. Experiment1is within subjects design. First of all, we used "I win you lose" game to investigate the early emergence and generating process of self-benefiting lies in2-4years old children, that is, whether or not they can spontaneously lie for personal gain, and how spontaneous self-benefiting lies emerge. What’s more, to explore which cognitive factors affect the emergence of self-benefiting lies, we also study the relationship between lie-telling behavior and the development of children’s theory of mind, executive function. On the basis of Experiment1, in Experiment2, we divided children into two groups, one group called game guided group in which children were guided how to lie for personal gain and the other only play games repeatedly, to find out if children’s lie-telling behavior could affect the development of children’s theory of mind, executive function in2-4years old childrenThe results of this study as follows:(1) Most children between2-4years old did not spontaneously lie for personal gain in the "I win you lose" game.65%of children never lied during the game,and only35%of children spontaneously lied at least once.Meanwhile,93%of children did not lie initially but the number of child who lied increased steadily and reach the peak after having played the game for3times.19%of children lied in the fifth game,and then the number of the children slightly decreased,13%of children lied ultimately.(2) By measured how frequently children lied,a positive correlation between lying and IQ was indeed revealed.(3) Children’s tendency to lie would be significantly related to their theory of mind understanding. After partialling out the effects of IQ, age, and executive function scores, this significant correlation remained.(4) Children’s tendency to lie would be significantly related to their executive function. This significant correlation remained after the contributions of IQ, age, and theory of mind measures were partialled out.(5) The children’s lying behaviors significantly increased by the specific guidance for how to gain. The percentage of children who lied in the game guided group increased from23%up to100%,and the average number of lying increased from less than once up to nearly10times. Meanwhile, the percentage of children who lied in the game group increased only from26.7%up to30%,and the average number of lying increased only2times or so. (6) The2-4children’s lying behaviors could affect the development of children’s theory of mind, executive function, and the increasing frequency of children’s lying behavior will promote the development of children’s theory of mind, executive function. |
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