How uncomfortable truths force kids to lie as they grow older

We all know that parents go to great lengths to keep a child’s mouth shut in the presence of guests, because they are afraid the child will blurt out secrets of the house to them. The childlike tendency to tell the truth anywhere to anyone is what I would like to focus on. Honesty is one of the few values embedded in a child, yet it is taught to them by “truthful” adults and interestingly, as you grow up, the tendency to lie increases. Read about this interesting experiment on how telling a lie has a truck with growing up:

‘Do not peek”

A group of scientists invited a few 2-year olds, 4-year olds and 8-year olds. They were given the simple task: identify a toy hidden behind a screen based on the sound it would make. For example, if it was a dog, they would hear a bark and so on. But soon the toys and sounds seemed to have no correlation, as in one case, the toy in question was a car, and the sound played was Beethoven.

In the middle of this task, the scientists leave the room under the pretext of drinking water and give the child only one instruction: No peeking.

The kids of course could not resist the urge to see what was behind the screen. The scientists knew this of course (thanks to hidden cameras in the room).

When they scientist returned, one of them asked a simple question, “Did you peek?”.

Guess what the answers were?

Among the 2-year olds: only 30% were untruthful.

Among the 4-year olds: most of the kids claimed to not see it, yet blurted out the answer unintentionally.

Among the 8-year olds: the children claimed not to know the answer, and purposefully answered incorrectly to cover up any suspicion.

The older we get, the more concerned we are with the opinion of the people around us, and we do whatever it takes, even twisting the truth, just to keep (or make) them happy, often failing to bother about how far from the truth we are drifting.

The most boring movie I ever saw: “I don’t watch movies so I can’t answer the question.”