The age range was chosen because past research has shown that children’s moral understanding of blue lies begins to emerge around 7 years and reach near adult level at 11 years ( Fu et al., 2007). Given their moral knowledge, it is possible that Chinese children may actually tell blue lies when faced with a real-life situation where the interest of the collective must be protected. (2007) found that with increased age, Chinese children give increasingly more positive evaluations to blue lies. Children from the PRC were selected because a recent study by Fu et al. Seven-, 9-, and 11-year-old children from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) participated in this study. The present study aimed to address the questions of whether children tell blue lies and whether children’s evaluation of blue lies is related to their blue lie-telling behavior. As children become increasingly exposed to their culture, their conception of lying and its moral values become more in line with the cultural norms, which in turn may influence their actual lying behavior. These results suggest that children’s moral understanding of lying may be influenced by the cultural context in which they are socialized. (2007) found that as age increased, Chinese children between 7 and 11 years of age increasingly favored lying to benefit the collective over an individual or self while Western children showed the opposite preference. Furthermore, closely related to the present investigation, Fu et al. (2000) reported that 4- and 5-year-old Catholic Italian children did not regard untruthful statements blessed by a priest as lies. While children are strongly against lies that conceal transgressions, Western 4- to 11-year-olds endorse white lies told to be polite ( Bussey, 1999), and 7-, 9- and 11-year-old Chinese children value lies told for modesty purposes (e.g.
Research on children’s moral judgments has shown that children’s understanding of truths and lies and their moral implications emerges during the preschool years (e.g. However, it is entirely unclear (1) whether children will tell lies for their collective and (2) how children’s willingness to tell blue lies is related to their moral understanding of such type of lies.Īlthough no study has specifically examined children’s actual telling of blue lies and its relation to their moral understanding, related studies have been conducted since the early 1900s ( Piaget, 1932/1965 Hartshorne & May, 1928 Peterson, Peterson & Seeto, 1983 Strichartz & Burton, 1990 Siegal, Surian, Nemeroff & Peterson, 2000 Siegal & Peterson, 1998 Polak & Harris, 1999 Bussey, 1992 Lewis, 1993 Lewis, Stranger & Sullivan, 1989 Lee, Cameron, Xu, Fu & Board, 1997 Lee, 2000 Fu, Lee, Cameron & Xu, 2001 Fu, Xu, Cameron, Heyman & Lee, 2007).
Not only do children lie to conceal their own transgressions ( Lewis, 1993 Polak & Harris, 1999 Talwar & Lee, 2002a Wilson et al., 2003) or to trick others ( Chandler, Fritz & Hala, 1989 Peskin, 1992), but they also tell white lies to spare the feelings of others ( Talwar & Lee, 2002b Talwar, Murphy & Lee, 2006). Research has shown that children begin to lie as early as preschool years ( Newton, Reddy & Bull, 2000) and the tendency to lie continues to increase with age ( Wilson, Smith & Ross, 2003). The present study tests this general hypothesis. As a result, they endorse others telling blue lies as well as telling them themselves. Children may be socialized to believe that lying for the collective is morally acceptable. However, an additional possibility is that this moral latitude already exists in childhood. In other words, blue lies are a unique product of an individual’s attempt to meet the complex demands of the adult society.
Where does this moral latitude come from? Social psychological research ( Lanate & Nida, 1981 Forgas & Williams, 2001) has long revealed that people’s social behaviors are strongly influenced by social situational factors, which may also be the driving force for adults’ decisions to tell blue lies ( Barnes, 1994 Bok, 1978). These lies are so common that they have acquired a specific name, the ‘blue lie’ (purportedly originating from cases where police officers made false statements to protect the police force or to ensure the success of the government’s legal case against an accused Barnes, 1994).Īlthough people generally reject lying, they often feel that lying in the name of the collective good is morally justified because blue lies serve pro-social purposes ( Barnes, 1994 Bok, 1978). Such lies are frequently told in business, politics, sports, and many other areas of human life. Lying in the name of the collective good occurs commonly in the adult world.
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