Harsh discipline prompts kids to lie

Harsh discipline at school prompts young children into lying more readily about their misdemeanours than their peers from less stricter institutions, new research says. The study of three-and-four-year-old children indicates that in a punitive environment, they are able to tell more convincing lies than those in a non-punitive environment. The research, led by Victoria Talwar and Kang Lee, professors at the McGill and Toronto Universities respectively, examined deceptive behaviours in two groups of children living in the same neighbourhood, the journal Child Development reports. One group was enrolled in a private school in which beating with a stick, slapping of the head, and pinching were administered publicly and routinely for offences. The mistakes ranged from forgetting a pencil to being disruptive in class, according to a statement from McGill University. In another private school, children were disciplined with time-outs or scolding and, for more serious offences, were taken to the principal's office for further reprimand. The study involved an experiment comparing the behaviour of children in the two schools. Children were seen individually and asked to play a guessing game by an experimenter who was born and raised locally. The children were told not to peek at a toy when left alone in a room. Most children in both schools couldn't resist the temptation, and peeked at the toy. When the experimenter asked if they had peeked, nearly all the peekers from the punitive school lied - compared with just over half of those from the non-punitive school. What's more, after the initial lie, lie-tellers from the punitive school were better able to maintain their deception when answering follow-up questions about the identity of the toy - by deliberately giving an incorrect answer, for example, or by feigning ignorance. "One possibility is that the harsh punitive environment heightens children's motivation to come up with any strategies that will help them survive in that environment," Lee says. "Lying seems particularly adaptive for the situation."