Effects of Age and Prior Help on 'Altruistic Lying'.

This study examines the extent to which the younger (8 years old) and preadolescent (12 years old) child engage in altruistic lying for a peer who is dependent on the child for help in the form of lying behavior. Subjects were 56 Canadian, white, middle class boys. An ostensible peer gave half of the subjects help in winning a prize. The other 28 boys were refused help. One-half of the subjects in both help and refused-help conditions were 8 years old; the other half were age 12. The peer informed each subject individually that he had committed an accidental transgression and asked the subject not to tell the experimenter about it. When questioned about the accident, 12-year-olds who had received help from the peer were more willing to lie and thereby deny any knowledge of the accident than were 8-year-olds who had also received help. No differences in lying behavior were found between 8-year-olds and 12-year-olds after they had been refused help by the peer. (Author/MK)