Do as I say and not as I think: Parent socialisation of lie-telling behaviour

This study explored parent (N = 146) perspectives about situations in which they think it is acceptable to lie, how this corresponds to how they socialise their children about lie-telling and their children’s actual behaviour. Results indicated the methods parents report using to teach their children about the acceptability of lie-telling are consistent with what they report teaching their children about lie-telling overall. Also, the frequency of lies that children told (N = 88) to protect themselves from psychological distress or conflict differed between those who were taught that lying is sometimes acceptable versus those taught it is never acceptable.