ABSTRACT

Although lying is a common behavior, there exist different types of lies which, when executed effectively, rely on different sets of cognitive and social skills. Antisocial lies are self-centered, told to protect oneself from harm or for personal gain, and rely on both cognitive skill and emotion regulation. Prosocially, lies are told to benefit others, either to be polite or to protect another from harm, perhaps at one?s own expense, requiring social competence to recognize and act in such situations. Few studies examine children?s naturalistic antisocial or prosocial lie-telling behavior, and none have examined both in the same child. This research is based on the assumption that these lies follow different developmental trajectories in terms of children?s likelihood and competence in telling them. The researcher will investigate the different developmental paths for prosocial lying (lying to benefit other people) and antisocial lying (lying for self-centered reasons or to protects oneself from harm) in relation to social and cognitive development in children. This research is novel in that it uses a longitudinal design and examines both types of lying in the same study. In a longitudinal design with a large sample, the research examines children?s abilities to tell plausible and effective lies by assessing their expressive behaviors while lying. The sample will be drawn from two research sites (New York City, Montreal), with a diverse array of data to be collected from laboratory tasks designed to elicit prosocial and antisocial lying (multiple tasks for each). The research includes extensive measurement of cognitive and social individual difference variables, as well as data collected from parents of the children. Ultimately, the study will provide an integrated picture of the developmental paths and roles of antisocial and prosocial lie-telling in relation to children?s cognitive and social development. It also systematically examines development of the ability to tell plausible lies across contexts and its relation to family factors, such as parenting and environmental risk. Thus, it will examine the same child?s ability to tell plausible lies in a variety of contexts in relation to cognitive, social and familial factors.

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